Desperate Times
by FreakensteinXIII
Summary: Kait emerged from vault 111 and wasn't ready for the world that was waiting for her. Even with the friends she makes, she is desperate to find her kidnapped son and would do anything, even work with those she hates just to get him back. F!SS/Danse. Rated M
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I'm still kinda new to this stuff and this is a new fanfic I've been working on. Fallout 4 is an awesome game and of course I don't own anything from it nor do I claim any rights.

This story is a slow burn F! SS / Danse. I have a love/hate relationship with him in the game but I think that's why I'm drawn to him so much. He's a really cool character and I did get really drawn to him after I learned more about him.

This is rated M for language, violence, and eventual sexual content. This will contain spoilers to the game too so just a heads up.

In this story, instead of the Prydwen arriving after the Reunions mission like in the game, I have it arriving sometime after the deep range transmitter gets obtained.

Enjoy please!

Chapter 1

It was about a month ago when she finally took the wedding ring off. When the hot sunlight kissed her skin the moment the elevator leading to the damning depths of Vault 111 emerged from underground, she still saw the same world. All around were fences, trees, soldiers and citizens of the Commonwealth trying to gain entry to the vault. When her eyes truly adjusted to the light was when Kait then realized that it was all in her head.

It took several days for her to believe that Nate was dead and that her son, Shaun, was gone. By his tone, she could tell that Codsworth was worried about her. He had given her a tape when she first met him after emerging from the vault titled, "Hi Honey!". She put it in her pocket with a smile. "Nate's so sweet," she said. "I'll just wait until he's home with Shaun from the store to hear his voice."

When she found the first corpse in the wasteland, her eyes had formed a watery film as her trembling hand found her mouth. The meal that Codsworth had fixed for her was all on the ground in minutes as she vomited everything out from the sight. Nate was dead, was what she told herself finally. And Shaun was gone. Kidnapped.

It wasn't until she took the first bullet in the arm that she fully understood that the world she knew was long gone and dead; cremated and spread to the sea, lost forever.

She heard a man yelling to her from the top of a building in Concord but she didn't hear what he said. Kait, with shaking hands and tears running down her pale cheeks, retrieved a pipe rifle from the ground a few feet from her. She was so terrified.

"Come out you little bitch!" A man who appeared as though he hadn't showered in months with rotting teeth, a dirty face and stained brown with old blood hands had yelled. "I want to get to know you better!"

Kait finally let go of her arm; her hand fresh with blood from the bullet wound. Her back was pressed tightly to a destroyed brick building behind her but instead of poking her head out before taking a shot at the raider, she snuck around the building. With several, long deep breaths, Kait ran her non-bloody hand through her jet black hair and pushed her bangs back. Her light blue eyes finally slid over in the direction of the Raiders before the rest of her head moved and she raised her rifle with her. As she peered down the makeshift scope, memories flooded of her father of when he taught her how to fire a weapon. By the time she had met Nate, she was a better shot than he was but she was still far from perfect.

A hard kick to her right shoulder followed as she fired the first shot, hitting one of the Raiders in the leg. A hot blast of red split through the air as the man in the building covered her while the next firefight began.

Somehow, magically, Kait had survived. She met the man in the building along with a few others and learned that his name was Preston Garvey. Little did she know that this man would become a dear friend to her. She spilled everything to him the moment they met. Words of pre-war times, the vault, her late husband and her kidnapped son spilled from her mouth before she even realized it. She was crying again; choosing to trust these strangers that she had just stumbled across. They listened with a seriousness that chilled the room. Soon after though, they had begged her to help them again. She did so and, again, she couldn't fathom how she had come out of the nightmare that had followed.

When night had fallen and all her new allies had worked together to set up lights, power, water, food, shelter and defenses back in her old home of Sanctuary, Kait had found a quiet place to be alone. She was sitting against the wall in her destroyed house, looking at the broken crib that belonged to Shaun before she finally put in the holotape that Codsworth had given her.

"Bye honey. We love you." And the taped had clicked, indicating the end of the message. Kait's chest had tightened to the point it was unbearable. She hugged her knees up to her chest and clutched herself tightly as she buried her head in her arms and sobbed harder than she ever had in her life.

The Commonwealth was a cold place. It was cruel and unforgiving. Kait started to become increasingly distant to any stranger she met yet she never turned down anyone who needed help; she just didn't get close to those she didn't know. Preston was the first human being in this new world to remind her that there were those she could trust and rely on still. He vowed to help her find her son and Kait was shocked when he had pulled her aside one night after clearing out an area of Raiders causing trouble to a nearby settlement. He had told her that if she never arrived, he would have just found some way to kill himself if he ever made it out of Concord. He didn't care if the Raiders broke in and killed them all. He was ready for death. The thought of Preston being gone hurt too much to think about as Kait cast her eyes down and shook her head.

"You saved my life," Preston spoke with a soft smile, "in more ways than one."

"I'm glad you're still here," Kait said as she pulled him in a tight hug. Preston hesitated before gently placing his hands on her waist.

No one outside of the original Sanctuary settlers knew about Nate and Shaun. Kait had sewn a small pouch on her pants by her right pocket with both wedding rings inside which couldn't be removed unless the pants were ripped open. She didn't want anyone else to know about her old life but she still kept her husband and child in the back of her mind. She stuck with a new look too. She found a drifters outfit that she favored and cut her thick black hair short. During her travels, she even obtained a scar on her left eyebrow.

Even though she adored the Minutemen, Kait knew their technological help and resources could only go so far and she was forced to expand. She found a surprisingly nice settlement called Diamond city where she found two new friends that joined her in her journey before she had known it. Piper, a brave, strong willed woman with a knack for the extreme had eagerly joined. Kait didn't know it until Piper had joined, but having another female around that wasn't rude 24/7 or high off her mind every second was a relief.

The other follower was a synth named Nick Valentine. Kait was shocked, almost scared at first when she met her first synth but she soon melted to his warmth and damn, did she love Nick Valentine. He was the next person she spilled her story to. She learned from him who may have her son and he stayed by her side when she killed the man named Kellogg who sure enough, was the piece of shit who had murdered her husband.

Her next victim would be the boogeyman of the Commonwealth, the Institute. But tracking them down proved to be near impossible.

One day, after a month had passed, she had picked up a station on her pip boy that was new. She and Nick were in the middle of laughing over something that happened the day before when she noticed and tuned in. It was a distress signal, a cry for help, coming from the Cambridge police station. Kait cast her blue eyes to Nick's gold ones and without a word spoken, they agreed to help.

When they arrived they found a barricaded police station with three people within. A yell came from one of the men as a pack of feral ghouls swarmed the area with a rabid ferocity.

"Go!" Kait yelled to Nick and he ran forward with a nod, gun out and already shooting. Kait stayed back and knelt behind a car she was near. She pulled her custom, and most favorite, sniper rifle out to the front of her and took aim. She fired her first shot and a ghoul's head exploded from the impact. She pulled the bolt back and readied another shot.

Every time it seemed like they were about to be victorious, more and more ferals would pour out of nowhere. Kait cursed under her breath as she started reloading her sniper and failed to hear the growl that sounded from behind her until it was already upon her. Eyes wide, Kait turned just in time and moved her head out of the way as the feral swung its clawed hand down where she was.

A sound of panic rose from Kait's throat as she kicked the ghoul back away from her but it came back faster than she could react. Kait ducked low to the ground and crawled enough away under the ghoul before rising to her feet and breaking to a sprint towards the police station. She only managed a few steps before a painful, sharp, burning pain hit her left calf and forced her to fall to the broken asphalt with a thud.

Kait saw the blood pouring from her leg before rolling on her back to watch the ghoul that struck her almost tackle her. She closed her eyes tight and threw her hands up to try to reduce as much pain as she was about to endure but suddenly, blasts from a laser rifle hit the ghoul three times and it was reduced to nothing but ashes all over Kait.

A hard breath shot out of Kait's chest and she panted as she opened her eyes and looked up. Towering proudly over her was a giant of a man in magnificent armor looking back down at her. He had dark brown hair and well kept, trimmed facial hair with matching brown eyes and a long scar going down the right side of his face.

"Get up soldier," he spoke with a strong voice and held his large, metal hand out to her. Kait quickly took it and he pulled her up to her feet with ease. Pain surged through her leg as she put weight on it but she wasn't going to let that get in her way as there were still a swarm of ghouls left.

Kait knew she was no good injured and exposed on the ground. Before her savior stomped off back into the fight, she noticed a broken fire escape next to her on a building. She couldn't get up there on her own so she grabbed the man's cold metal arm.

"Hey," she breathed and pointed up at the escape, "get me up there."

The man looked at her suggested sniping spot and nodded. It felt weird to Kait by how easily he lifted her. It was if she didn't weigh anything at all as he raised her up enough for her to do the rest. Kait adjusted, her leg still throbbing like a bitch, but took aim none the less.

Maybe 20 minutes passed and the ghouls finally stopped coming. Nick, having done well, adjusted his hat casually before finding Kait and approaching the bottom of the escape.

"That's a nasty wound, doll." He raised his hands up as she dropped into them. He steadied her as she tried to stand on her own.

"I'll," Kait grunted as she looked down at her bleeding leg, "be fine. I just need a doctor." Nick looked over at the police station and noticed the metal tank man loudly stomping towards them.

"Kait," Nick spoke with haste as he looked back at her, his arm still around her to help her stand, "we should get out of here now."

"Why?" Kait replied. She looked forward to the man that was now at them. She noticed a symbol painted on the chest plate of his armor but she had never seen it before.

The man was silent at first before evaluating the injured woman before him. "That was some good shooting you did. If you hadn't shown up, I don't know if we would have made it."

"Thanks," Kait said with an almost weak smile. "Nick and I were in the area when we found your broadcast. It was the least we could do."

With the mention of Nick, the man finally glanced in the detective's direction. Kait noticed a look in the large man's eyes that weren't exactly friendly and she tensed from it. He slowly looked back over at Kait and noted how she tightly held onto the synth to hold herself up. She trusted him, the man realized with near disbelief.

"What's your name soldier?" The man asked finally.

Kait abruptly answered, taken off guard by his sudden question, "Kaitlyn - uh, sir. But just call me Kait." She lightly shook her head, "but I'm no soldier. Just a wanderer."

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Kait," the man spoke. "My name is Danse and I'm with the Brotherhood of Steel."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2,

Kait was in disbelief when she learned what the brotherhood was and about the technology they possessed. She had possibly found her ticket into finally finding Shaun and she nearly cried tears of joy from it. She was inside the police station now getting treated by a woman named Haylen.

Haylen was a scribe in the Brotherhood and, outside of Kait, she was the only one who seemed fine with the fact that Nick stayed so close to Kait while her leg was being looked at.

Kait understood soon why Nick seemed uncomfortable with both Danse and an ill-tempered man named Rhys, who nearly died from the battle that had taken place about half an hour ago outside. Danse explained to her what the Brotherhood was and what it stood for. On the list of hated people or things, synths were near the tip top but Nick refused to leave Kait alone with strangers. Especially while she was vulnerable.

"There we go," Haylen happily said as she finished wrapping bandages around Kait's leg. "All done."

"Thanks," Kait said with a smile before rolling her pants leg down. She stayed silent as she looked at the Brotherhood members before then asking, "So what brings you here?"

The Paladin spoke for the others. Danse explained how there were others and they were investigated a powerful energy reading that Haylen had picked up but some of the others didn't make it. He spoke of how they needed to retrieve a deep range transmitter to get their radio working. When Kait realised that by getting the radio up and running, she could have access to a vast arsenal of technology that could find Shaun, she immediately felt the urge to help.

"I can come with you," she suggested.

"What?" It was Rhys that spoke up; a sour tone in his voice, "no way."

Kait eyed him with annoyance but Danse retorted instead, "That's not a bad idea." He glanced at Kait, "She held her own far better than another civilian would have with the ghouls outside. And," he looked at Rhys now, "you're too injured to accompany me and Haylen needs to stay to check up on you."

"But sir," Rhys was already arguing, "she is accompanied by a synth! I don't know why we haven't even addressed that yet!" Rhys cast a hostile glare at Nick and Kait, not having anymore of it, stood defensively. "We should destroy it now!" Rhys yelled.

"If you," Kait spoke before anyone else could and grabbed her sniper before gripping it in her hands tightly, "lay a finger on Nick, then you will have an enemy you will regret."

"Kait," Nick spoke carefully as he placed a hand on Kait's shoulder. "We should leave."

Rhys and Kait shot endless glares of hostility towards each other before Danse stepped in, "Rhys, that is enough. She saved our lives and who she chooses to accompany her is her business. Instead, you should be thanking her." Danse looked at Kait again, "And please don't leave. We really could use your help. But if I may ask, why are you so eager to accompany me?"

Kait, still pissed off at Rhys, finally slid her eyes over to Danse, "I think you guys could help me in return. I'm… looking for someone. …. A dear friend of mine has gone missing and I need help finding her." Kait knew it was just for Shaun and Nick knew as well but he was aware on how she didn't share her true story lightly, so instead he remained quiet and stood close by her.

"What a waste of time," Rhys spat. "You really think we'd help you find a friend? She's probably just another synth needing to be destroyed!"

"I've had enough of you!" Kait retorted immediately.

"Enough!" Danse boomed over both of them just as a yelling fight was about to break out between the two. Danse was now annoyed too while scribe Haylen appeared scared and stayed quiet in a corner of the room.

"Rhys," Danse started with the Knight, "that is enough from you. Go check the station for any resources we can use. And you," he now turned his anger towards Kait, "if you still so choose to accompany me for the transmitter, we will help you in return but you will listen to everything we have to say and follow orders without question. It is true that we harbor a hatred towards synths but we have been kind enough not to destroy your friend but I would advise that he leave while you wish to help us. There are many Brotherhood members that wouldn't be as nice as we have been about it. … Is that understood?"

Kait looked ahead of her, not at the Paladin. She was annoyed and was debating if helping was even worth the trouble. She trusted Nick with her life and there was no way she'd ever choose the Brotherhood over him.

"Is that understood?!" Danse repeated with more anger in his voice now.

Kait clutched her rifle that she was still holding tightly to repress the anger before she spat her response quickly with returned anger, "Sure!"

After things had calmed down in the police station, Danse had deemed that it was too late to travel to ArcJet Systems and that they would rest for the night and leave in the morning. He allowed Nick to stay and she and the detective stayed in a room far from Rhys with sleeping bags on the floor. Instead of sleeping like she should be, Kait and Nick sat next to each other against the wall and talked lightly.

"I'm sorry to have gotten you in so much trouble," Nick said as he closed and opened his robotic hand while Kait had her head rested on his shoulder.

"That's not your fault Valentine." Kait said with a smile as she watched him mess with his hand. "I think Rhys is just jealous of your hat."

Nick cracked a smile and laughed, "I think you might be right."

Out in the main room of the police station, Danse finished their ammunition count. He wasn't in his power armor. Instead, he wore military pants and boots with a light t-shirt and a coat over it. His dog tags hung to his chest. He faintly heard laughter from the room he knew Kait and Nick was in and quietly approached the room to see if his ears were right or if she was asleep like she should be. When he reached the doorway, Kait had quickly turned the corner and ran face first into the Paladin's chest. Even out of his armor, he was a giant.

Danse was taken off-guard, not expecting her to run out and Kait looked up at him with a just as startled look on her face as he wore. On her head, she was wearing Nick's detective hat. Kait quickly snatched Nick's hat off her head and held it to her chest as she felt small under the Paladin's gaze.

"Um, Paladin?" Kait looked back into her room and motioned with her hand to Nick that she was alright before looking at Danse again. "What are you doing?"

"Inspecting," Danse answered honestly. "Why aren't you in bed?"

Kait took a good step back from him; she was still in his personal space, "Looking for any paper and a pen if there's one here."

Danse looked confused, "Why?" He questioned, "Do you need to write something down?"

"Kind of," Kait replied as she began to wander off in her search. She quickly found paper and not too long after she then found a pen.

"You should be asleep," Danse began. "We have to be up in the morning."

As Kait walked towards her room again, she stopped in front of him and put Nick's hat back on her head. "Then why aren't you in bed?" She asked. Before she let him retort, she tipped the hat to him, "Night, Danse." And she entered her room.

The next morning, Danse was up first regardless of him being last to bed. He hadn't entered his power armor yet as he got prepared for the journey ahead of him. He quietly approached Kait's room and peered in. She had her back to him as she slept in one of the sleeping bags on the floor. Nick, on the other hand, was sitting in a chair at one corner of the room taking a screwdriver to his hand and not noticing the Paladin enter the room until he stood next to Kait.

Before Danse spoke, he looked down at Kait but what was lying next to her. On the paper she had retrieved the night before was now a picture. It had the police station in the background as all those present to that fight were drawn in looking playfully triumphant, besides who Danse assumed was Rhys. In the picture, Rhys was lying by the others with x's as his eyes and his tongue hanging out. Kait was up front in the picture but her drawing had her looking down at her leg. It looked as though she was supposed to be in the middle of a cheer but a cartoony ghoul was biting on her leg and she had drawn a playful look of horror on her character's face.

"Is this what kept her up?" Danse asked as he knelt down and picked up the picture.

Nick, looking uneasy at first, replied calmly, "She insisted that she had to get it down."

Kait now stirred in the sleeping bag. She closed her eyes tighter as she tucked in her head and rubbed her nose roughly as it began to itch before she sleepily opened her eyes. As she slowly turned her head, she flinched when she saw Danse standing over her, his piercing brown eyes staring into her light blue ones.

"God… dammit Danse." Kait groaned as she dropped her head on it's side again. "You're a scary sight in the morning."

"Get up." Was all he retorted as he dropped the picture on her then left the room.

When Kait got ready and left her room, she just had her coat in her hands but the need for more sleep was written all over her groggy face.

Rhys sneered as she walked by, "I can tell you're not Brotherhood material."

Kait tossed her coat on without even a glance in his direction, "It's a good thing I didn't ask you then."

Kait and Danse had departed within the hour. Unwillingly, Kait had to say bye to Nick as he returned to Sanctuary but she promised that she'd be okay. She and Danse made it to ArcJet Systems in a few hours. The place was overrun with synths and Kait could now see why the Brotherhood was so hostile to them. They were a formidable enemy. At one point they were overrun and Kait had accidently turned on the engine at the bottom of the factory. Luckily, Danse could tell that a tremendous heat was about to erupt in the room but only had enough time to save Kait as he shoved her back into the engine room before a large set of thick steel doors slammed shut in front of her. Kait was terrified to see what had become of the Paladin but when the doors slid open again, he was kneeling on the ground, his power armor a hot red color.

Soon after the scene, they had got what they came for and had reached the surface again to the Commonwealth. Once outside, Danse had stopped Kait when he saw that her pants leg was thick and wet with fresh blood. She had opened her wound up.

"Are you alright?" He quickly asked when he reached her.

"Oh," Kait looked down at her leg with surprise, "I didn't even notice." She sat down on the ground and Danse exited his power armor to kneel down by her while she pulled up her pants leg. The bandages had gotten too heavy and came undone. When Kait touched the gash on her calf, she winced from the pain. She then dug into a small bag and pulled out a thick cloth she had in there but before she could hold it to her leg, Danse had retrieved it from her, grabbed her leg carefully and pressed firmly to her wound to stop the bleeding.

"Th-thanks," Kait said with grit teeth.

Danse nodded but didn't look at her. He wasn't a medic like Haylen but he still tried to treat her leg with care. When the bleeding had finally slowed, he spoke softly, "You did really good in there. I definitely don't regret taking you with me."

"Will," Kait began, "this fix the radio?"

"Yes," Danse said with a small smile. He looked up at her now, "I would love for you to join the Brotherhood. I think you would make a great asset to our organization."

Kait almost blushed with embarrassment, "Thanks but," she shook her head and broke her eye contact with him, "I'm not cut out for the soldier life."

"Like hell you're not," Danse argued. "You have a knack for the sniper rifle and after today, I would trust you to watch my back. When we get the radio up and running, I'll contact our Elder. He would agree with me once he sees you in action."

Before Kait responded, Danse held his hand out to her but for her to hand him her bag, which she did. He glanced through her medical supplies and used a stimpack on her leg before making a makeshift bandage for her out of some old cloth to cover her wound again. "At least think about it." Danse stood and grabbed Kait by the hand and brought her up with him.

"I will," Kait responded with an _I guess so_ attitude. She watched him return to his armor and reenter it. As they began walking away, he glanced in her direction with a smile, "We make a good team."

Kait didn't smile back but stared at his face. He did have to overall appearance as Nate. Danse was taller but not by much. But Nate also had brown hair and the stubble facial hair that Kait absolutely loved with brown eyes. Kait found herself blushing at Danse but quickly whipped her head forward. How dare she compare this man to her deceased husband? She felt a sick feeling down in the pit of her stomach as her heart ached. She couldn't move on. All she had going for her in her life was finding her son and that was it. There wasn't time for her own happiness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kait soon came to regret joining the Brotherhood. Preston was pretty pissed off with her when he found out that she joined but he soon calmed down. What she hated the most was that she had to listen to Knight Rhys and he knew it. Their conversations never ended well. With him being an asshole and her being a smart ass, they were bound to hate each other. Kait learned soon after joining that Haylen actually had a soft spot for the Knight. How Haylen could have feelings for Rhys was beyond her.

On top of fighting constantly with Rhys, Danse was no longer Mr. Nice Paladin. Instead he was hard on Kait over everything and it was only worse when she would fight with the Knight.

After completing assignments from both Rhys and Haylen one day, Kait had found time alone finally in the police station. She gathered paper and found a desk to sit at in a secluded room and began to draw. She drew all the time in her pre-war life and remembered how Nate would always love the pictures she'd draw.

She lost track of time and had even put the Diamond City radio on to listen to some tunes as she went through three pictures so far and started on her fourth. She started drawing Sanctuary as she remembered in her old life. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear the person enter the room behind her. She started drawing Nate's car in the driveway before the paper suddenly turned a darker color as dirty water was poured all over the picture she was working on and all of the others she had already finished.

Kait jolted back in her seat, her mouth dropped in disbelief and her hands held up. When she looked back, she saw red as Knight Rhys then took a swig from the bottle he was holding.

Rhys looked at Kait with hate, "You said you didn't have time for another assignment but it looks to me like you have plenty of time on your hands."

Kait stood so fast that the chair she was sitting in got kicked out from under her. "What. The fuck. Is wrong with you?!" she tried not to scream.

"You," Rhys grinned like an asshole, "should be doing something productive. Not fucking around." When he went to take another drink, Kait snatched the bottle from his hand, flung water on him then tossed the bottle, hitting him in the face. Rhys flinched from the bottle but before he noticed, Kait had took a swing and clocked him right in the jaw with her fist.

"How dare you!" Rhys yelled and by now, the whole police station (more Brotherhood initiates were there now) had begun to hear the two.

"How dare me?!" Kait spat and shoved him hard, "Fuck you! You can shove your bullshit Knight status right up your ass!"

The fight which mostly consisted of violent shoves and occasional fists had been taken out to the main room of the station. The other members had circled around them but none intervened; the fight was quite scary. Suddenly, the crowd was split at one end and a furious and terrifying Danse had stepped in.

"This has gone on long enough!" Danse yelled. He grabbed both Rhys and Kait by their shoulders so tightly that they had both winced under the pain.

Danse angrily looked between the two and demanded, "What happened?!" He let go of them but shoved the two back again as they both itchedto still fight. The song, "Atom Bomb Baby," had been playing when Kait finally turned the music off.

"H-he," Kait began with a shaky voice. She was so mad that she almost couldn't talk. "He just keeps pushing me to the edge and I've had enough of him!"

"If you," it was Rhys' turn, "would do what you are supposed to I wouldn't have to push you!"

"I already did what you asked!" Kait nearly screamed. "I was just enjoying some time to myself finally! I haven't been able to be myself since I joined this damn organization!"

"What were you doing?" Danse interrogated Kait.

Kait hesitated before answering, "I was drawing."

Rhys piped up, "After you told Haylen and I that you didn't have time to accept another mission."

Danse still looked at Kait and spoke, "You knew what you were getting into when you joined us." He said bitterly, "There are hundreds of other things you can do besides drawing. You are supposed to be helping our cause, not goofing off. Now apologize to Knight Rhys and get back to work."

Kait's jaw dropped. Was he fucking serious? She glanced at Rhys and saw his amused expression, "Fuck this." Kait looked up at Danse now and knew he was furious but she didn't give a shit, "And fuck you Paladin." Kait turned her back to the shocked crowd and stormed out of the police station with a dramatic exit.

Kait was fuming. Tears of pure anger slid endlessly down her cheeks as she made it out of the barricade. She was going home. Home to those who actually cared about her well-being.

"Halt initiate!" Danse yelled from behind.

Kait shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe that he'd even follow her and like hell would she stop for him. She heard him repeat himself but chose to ignore him again. She only stopped because she didn't choose to. Danse's strong hands had grabbed her and slammed her to a building.

"You will listen to me, Kaitlyn!" Danse demanded.

Kait slapped his hands off of her, still crying but from the rage, "No I will not! You listen to me! I helped you guys out and you _promised,_ " she stressed that word, "that you would help me! When Danse? When will you look towards your lowly initiate that you made a promise to?!"

"With how you've been behaving," he began, "We don't owe you a thing!"

"Bullshit you don't!" Kait raised her hands as if she were going to strangle him but instead she squeezed her hands into tight fists, "Danse I helped you! I put my life on the line for you when no one else could even though I didn't know you! You owe me this!"

Danse was quiet for a few heartbeats. He was so close to her; towering over her and staring her down with his intense eyes and preventing her from moving her back from the building. "You're right. But when the others arrive, we will get you what you need and that's it." He spoke with such a terrifying authority, "After that you are no longer with the Brotherhood. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." Kait mumbled with detest. The tears had left permanent streaks through the dirt on her face. The two glared at each other for a long time before she hit him with her shoulder as she stomped past him. She was still going back to Sanctuary. At least for just now.

A week had passed and Kait was on the roof of her house fixing a hole while Preston was fixing a wall. She wasn't the best carpenter and a storm that came through a few days ago had punched a hole in her creation.

"Don't fall now, hun," Nick called up to her.

Kait smiled. She had missed everyone in Sanctuary. When she was done, she slid to the edge of the roof and Preston caught her when she jumped.

"I think we're done," Preston announced. "Maybe it'll hold up better this time."

"Hopefully." Kait sighed and slapped her hand to his shoulder. "Thanks Preston."

"Hey, um," Piper jogged up to them now. "Blue, it looks like we have company."

Confused, Kait followed Piper after she took off to show them what she was talking about. When they started going around the curve in the road, Kait stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who arrived.

"Why are you here?!" Kait yelled to the two people approaching, her followers standing behind her and even Dogmeat running up to sit by her.

Danse, in full power armor besides the head was walking a few steps behind scribe Haylen. They stopped when they got close enough and Haylen spoke first for the two, "We need you back Kait."

Kait, with no hatred towards Haylen, spoke calmly, "Why are you here Haylen?"

Haylen, looking out of place, replied, "Danse thought it'd be better for someone who you didn't hate to accompany him when coming to get you."

"Afraid," Kait said with amusement even though she wasn't pleased to see the Brotherhood again, "that I'd shoot him on sight?"

Danse spoke for himself now, "That crossed my mind."

Oh, Kait had almost forgot what his voice had sounded like. Almost. And here he was to remind her. It was too soon.

"Is that why you wore your power armor?" Kait asked now.

"It's one of the reasons," Danse answered honestly.

Kait got to the point, "What do you want? Has the elder arrived yet?"

"Not yet," he began, "It's about the others we lost when trying to get to the police station. We know our fallen brothers and sisters have placed distress beacons down in their locations but we had to run while we could. We need someone to find their beacons so we can recover their bodies. Their deaths should be honored."

"And how…," Kait trailed off. The pip boy on her arm seemed to weigh a ton at that moment. That's why they needed her help. What a great way to feel used. Kait now crossed her arms and stared daggers at the Paladin, "Why should I help you? _Again_."

"Please," it was Haylen to speak now. She was genuine, "It would mean so much to us. We've seen our friends and family die. Please help us honor them. You're the only one we know that can do this."

"You mean," Kait didn't fully mean to sound bitter, "I'm the only one with a portable radio that you know of." She paused in thought before opening her mouth again, "And what do I get out of it?"

At the end of her question, Danse's armor hissed as it opened up and he stepped out to be more personal. "I'm sorry Kait." He said.

"That's it?" Kait looked unimpressed.

The Paladin was quiet for a second before offering, "I'll have Rhys apologize to you." When he saw that Kait wasn't fully convinced, he tossed in, "And you get to order him around for just a day."

"Deal!" Kait agreed with a huge smile.

Again with much resistance from her friends, they did not want her to leave with the Brotherhood again but Kait was going to do what she wanted. Even behind the smiles, laughs, and jokes, she was nearly broken on the inside and desperate beyond belief. She needed to find Shaun and she knew the Brotherhood would help her. Saying her good-byes again, she left with Haylen and Danse. Haylen then left them to go back to the station so it was just Danse and Kait again. Goodie.

They traveled for hours, stopping every so often for a short break before continuing their journey. They first found a Knight named Varham at the West Everett Estates and had to kill several Super Mutants just to get to the body. Next, they went to the National Guard Training Yard and were happily greeted by feral ghouls. Kait came to the conclusion that she hated feral ghouls the most.

Kait was leading the way through the building while Danse watched her back. She found a door where the pinging from her pip boy was the loudest. She clicked the radio off and slowly opened the door. Inside was a ghoul and she quietly disposed of it but once she saw what was in the back corner of the room, she stood and covered her mouth. As she turned to rush out of the room, she ran into Danse and hit her nose on his power armor but he quickly steadied her by grabbing her arms.

"What's wrong?" Danse asked.

Kait shook her head and pushed passed Danse while she let him enter. A heavy exhale emerged from behind his lips as he saw the scene. Knight Astlin was the victim of feral ghouls and it showed as nothing much resembling the once strong female Brotherhood Knight was left. Danse slowly walked further in the room to the unfortunate Knight's mangled corpse and retrieved her holotape and holotags.

When the two left the building there was a loud echo in the air resembling a powerful engine to some sort of vehicle. When they looked up at the night approaching sky, they saw a huge aircraft flying overhead.

"The Prydwen." Danse breathed with admiration. "Elder Maxson is here."

"That," Kait pointed to the sky but looked at Danse, "Is his ride?"

Danse nodded and looked down at Kait, "Yes. And now you can finally leave our ranks."

Kait was a little taken aback by his words. She didn't know if he meant it to come off that rude but it felt enough like it so a pang of annoyance went through her. "Sorry to burden your almighty organization so much."

Danse looked confused, "Isn't this what you wanted?"

Kait hesitated, "Y-yeah, but…" she shook her head and looked away. She didn't know his words would hurt her so much. Here she was, helping him yet again and he so casually was willing to toss her aside. It hurt and that bothered her.

"Hey," Danse began strongly. "Don't get mad at me for this. You were the one who ruined your chance at staying with us."

"Me?" Kait half laughed with disbelief, "Rhys started that fight and you know that Danse!"

She could tell that he was not in the mood to listen to this argument again. "It's _Paladin_ Danse, initiate. While you are with us, you need to understand your rank and authority. Get over it."

 _What? He was kidding, right?_ "You're a joke," Kait shook her head in disgust. She backed away from him and waved her pip boy in the air. "Have fun finding your fallen comrades, soldier."

She left before Danse could stop her. It was night now, the darkest point, and she intended to travel back to Sanctuary but it wasn't until she saw fire barrels in the distance of a satellite array illuminating a pack of Super Mutants that she realized she went in the complete opposite direction. Kait knew she was hidden in the dark but looked down at her pip boy when she noticed a new station was picked up. When she tuned in, she heard the first ping and her eyes widened. Was this really happening?

Kait looked back at the satellite array and moved in closer, evaluating her enemies. She was way outnumbered but luckily for her, she had not only her sniper, but the night on her side.

She sprinted up a hill in the distance and hid behind a rock as her vantage point. She found her first victim and fired, getting a headshot… but it didn't kill the mutant. Instead, a greenish haze covered it and it seemed to be stronger now.

"What?" Kait breathed in disbelief. Well, now everyone was alerted. Nonetheless, she shot again and again and again until some started to fall. Bullets whizzed by her head and she ducked, waited a second, then sprinted to her next spot. She heard the sound of a detonator getting gradually louder and found the suicider mutant. Kait aimed at the mini nuke he was holding and hit. The hounds with the mutant exploded along with him.

Kait sprinted to her next spot but placed mines in her old spot before leaving. She didn't look as she heard her mines explode and instead looked at the array again. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw how much more Mutants poured out from the built shelters and from the area behind the satellites.

When she fired her next shot, a mutant standing on top of a satellite yelled and pointed at her even in the dark. Kait paled. They had already figured her out. It was only a matter of seconds before the first round of gunfire rained down in her area and the hounds were dispatched.

Kait ran back far enough away to lose them and finally slid behind an old, destroyed car. When she peeked up, the Super Mutants were already on the hunt. "Bad idea, Kaitlyn." She slid to sit with her back to the car. "Bad, bad idea." Suddenly, the sound of Mutants yelling quieted and Kait slowly turned to look over the car again.

The Commonwealth was a cold place. The dark had worked in her disadvantage. Kait didn't even see the Super Mutant with the sledgehammer standing at the end of the car staring at her with a large grin.

The mutant yelled and raised his hammer and Kait finally noticed when he did and watched in horror. She hugged the car and the impact hit a piece of the roof of the car that was broken and working as a canopy over her but it broke the rusted metal and forced it down. The roof of the car stabbed deep into her left shoulder and Kait screamed in pain. Panicking, she wiggled herself until the rusted metal slid out of her flesh. She scurried back away from the mutant as he swung again. He barely missed and she aimed at him with her rifle and shot as fast as the bolt action would let her. Finally, the mutant slammed to the ground, dead.

Kait already broke into a cold sweat as she held her wounded shoulder. The yells from the hunt sounded again and she ran.

The Super Mutants saw her this time and opened fire. Kait hit the ground when a bullet went clean through her right thigh. Desperate, Kait crawled as fast as she could to another boulder. She put away her sniper and took out her revolver this time. She wasn't ready to die but she had to make a stand. She couldn't run.

Kait looked down at her thigh and felt the wound with a trembling hand then made sure her revolver was fully loaded before leaning over and opening fire. The gunfight only lasted a few minutes if that. Kait killed a few Mutants but her body ached and her adrenaline was running dry. She hit her back to the rock again to steady her breathing but then screamed as a mutant hound rounded the corner without warning.

The hound scratched her and put a deep gash on her side. Kait tried to back away and held her left hand ahead of her. Immediately, the hound snatched her hand before yanking her forwards to it. After that, the hound gripped almost her entire left arm in its mouth and bit down, all its teeth sinking in. Kait cried out in agony as it drug her to the ground. She raised her revolver as the hound used her arm as a chew toy and with blurry vision, she fired every last shot in the chamber. The dog, with its teeth still lodged in her arm fell limp on her body.

She tried. She so desperately tried to move but her body wouldn't let her. She couldn't even see the stars anymore, her vision was so clouded. Her head tilted back when a mutant came in focus standing over her. Hot tears slid down her cheeks and mixed in the blood that covered her. She had lost too much and could feel her body growing numb. She felt the mutant grab her arm and began to walk away towards the array, dragging her with him, and yelling something to the other Mutants while they cheered.

Something that seemed like lights shone overhead. Or at least that's what Kait thought it was. Suddenly, the ground right by her head released a huge aftershock as something heavy hit the ground and crushed the mutant dragging Kait flat to the dirt.

Kait turned her head and tried to spit the dirt out of her mouth and blink it out of her eyes but she couldn't. She couldn't even move her left arm anymore or feel it. More and more aftershocks were felt and what sounded like lasers started firing.

"Do you have her?" a voice yelled from somewhere.

"She's here!" another voice that Kait was sure she recognized spoke next.

Before it went black, she felt her body being lifted into hard, cold arms. The ping from her pip boy was still going but it was just faded noise at this point.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I had to remove this chapter to update it. All that changed was information about Kait's pipboy. ... I totally forgot that it's on her left arm!

But thank you to everyone reading my story and reviewing! It means a lot to me!

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Kait slowly opened her eyes and saw the white ceiling to her pre-war room. Her eyes were so heavy and she raised her right hand to rub them. "Mmm…," she groaned, "honey?"

Danse furrowed his brow as he heard Kait speak. They were in the medical bay on the Prydwen and Kait was hooked up to three different machines. Under her gown they dressed her in, she had stitches on her waist where the hound had tore her flesh and on her left shoulder, the bullet was removed from her thigh and her arm was miraculously saved but she had to wear a cast while it recovered. The hound had broken her arm in eight different places and almost every ligament had been sprained. Her pip boy only suffered a cracked screen; the hound mainly grabbed her actual arm, and it was removed while she was hospitalized. Proctor Ingram was working currently on fixing it for her. Danse was secretly terrified when he found her near the satellite array. He feared that she had died and she nearly did. Not only had they extracted Kait out successfully, but her pinging pip boy let them know to search the area and sure enough, they found the body of Scribe Faris.

When Danse noticed Kait's eyes twitching, he rose from the seat next to her and approached her side.

"Kait," Danse began slowly as he gripped the side of the bed and slightly leaned over her.

Kait slowly opened her eyes and only managed to get them halfway. When she saw him, she smiled weakly. "Oh sweetie…" Kait carefully moved her good hand to touch his on the edge of the bed. Her eyes watered heavily when she looked back up at Nate standing next to the bed by her.

Danse hesitated when Kait grabbed ahold of his hand and he leaned back. She had also called him… sweetie? Danse knew she wasn't in her right mind. Cade had pumped her veins full of drugs just to ease the pain she was undergoing.

"Kait," Danse tried, "I'm-"

"I've missed you," hot tears spilled from her eyes and her face expressed a pain that revealed a lost love and a hurt that only her heart could feel, "So much Nathan."

Danse was taken aback. Who was Nathan?

"Where did you go?" Kait sobbed. "Please don't… please don't ever leave me again…" She let go of his hand and went to reach for her left hand but stopped mid-way. "I," she hiccuped from crying, "still have the ring. … it's not on but… but I still have it. I promise. I have yours too Nate. They're in my other pants…."

Danse took a step back. That's who she was looking for this whole time. Not some female friend. She was looking for her husband. Nate. He watched her in silence as her eyes closed again and sleep took her. Something odd turned in Danse's chest. He wasn't sure what it was but he left her side without thinking and found her clothes that had been put to the side in the room. He lifted her bloodied pants and felt the pockets but there was nothing. He quickly noticed a stitching under the right pocket however and when he ran his thumb over it, he felt two rings within. That could only be the wedding rings she was talking about. Danse stood there in silence before slowly folding her pants again and placing them back down with her other clothes.

Kait opened her eyes again and there was a man next to her that she never met before. He was average height with shaved hair and he wore Brotherhood apparel. He had his back to her as he checked her monitors.

"Who are…," Kait started saying but then she changed her question. "Where am I?"

The man quickly turned around to her, "You're awake!" He immediately composed himself, "I am Knight-Captain Cade. You are on the Prydwen."

"The Prydwen?" she echoed. "Elder Maxson's ship?"

"Yes," Cade replied. "You know, you're very lucky. If Paladin Danse hadn't come to your aid, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Kait looked up at the metal ceiling as she rested her head down, "Danse saved me?"

Cade nodded, "He stayed by your side all night waiting for you to recover. I finally convinced him to get some rest. He's retired to his room at the moment if you wished to talk to him."

Kait remained silent. Why would Danse do that for her? Was he that stubborn? She closed her eyes and thought to herself. She was grateful however. Danse had given her another day to find Shaun. She just prayed that he wouldn't call this her favor returned. She opened her eyes and looked at Cade while she started to sit up, which his expression immediately opposed to.

"You need to rest initiate."

"I," Kait still pushed herself up, slowly, "want to walk."

"I suppose," Cade sighed, "that wouldn't hurt. Just be careful."

"Yes sir," Kait said as a thank you.

A female scribe had entered the room while Cade exited and undressed Kait from her clothes before carefully dressing her in something loose, but still covering. She had baggy pants on and a loose, grey t-shirt and the scribe had put black Brotherhood boots on her. Before the female exited, Kait stopped her.

Kait opened her mouth but hesitated on her next words. Finally, she asked, "Where is Paladin Danse's room?"

She now stood outside a thick metal door on what she assumed was the common deck of the Prydwen. She raised her right hand but hovered her knuckles right by the door. The last encounter they had wasn't the best. Would she even want to see him? She swallowed hard and didn't knock, instead she grabbed the handle and opened the door.

Danse sat on the bed with his back to the door. His hair was darker and spiky while the towel was wrapped around his bare shoulders. He had just taken a shower based on his appearance. He was shirtless but had pants on with no shoes.

When he heard that the door opened he turned his head in the direction of it and his eyes widened a notch when he saw who stood there. "Kait?"

Danse stood before her and her eyes fell to his well toned torso. Scars lined over his abs but Kait liked the sight. She averted her eyes quickly and closed them as she shook the bad thoughts from her mind. "Is this a bad time?"

"No," Danse answered quickly. He motioned for her to close the door and she did so without question. … for some reason. He turned his attention away and found a shirt that matched hers before sliding it over his body.

"Should you be out of bed?" Danse asked as he took a few steps to her. Kait stayed quiet and kept her eyes low as she held her place at the door.

She spoke but not to respond to his question, "I just came to thank you sir. Thank you for saving me. I… don't know why but I appreciate it." It pained her to speak her next words, "I will understand if this makes us even and you wish for me to leave now."

Danse was confused at first but quickly adjusted as he understood, "I still owe you. So you may stay, initiate." He stared hard at her and noted every second she refused to look at him. "May I ask something personal about you?"

Kait sighed audibly and slid her eyes up to find his. She didn't like where this was going, "That depends."

Danse looked into her eyes and watched her shift uncomfortably under his gaze, "Why did you lie to me?"

Kait looked up fully now and narrowed her eyes, "About what?"

"Who you're looking for." He stated plainly. He could see the worry flicker in her eyes. "Who's Nathan?"

The look in Kait's eyes turned from worry to anger. How dare he say his name? Kait turned to exit and as the door cracked open, it was shut again by Danse. He stood with one hand on the door and looked down at Kait. She was close enough to breath in his scent and she kept her eyes low again. Her head only came up to his chest.

"How do you know that name?" she muttered almost angrily.

"You called me that," Danse spoke calmly.

Kait whipped her head up and locked eyes with Danse again but backed away. Like hell she did!

Knowing that her next words were yet going to answer him, he spoke again, "You're looking for your husband. Why didn't you tell me?"

Kait open and closed her right hand. She did not want to think about her old life and definitely not be confronted with it. "You didn't need to know."

"I think I had the right to know."

Kait huffed, "And what makes you say that?"

"I'm your superior officer," he blandly stated. "You should have been honest with me from the beginning."

"No," Kait stubbornly shook her head, "no I shouldn't have. You don't need to know anything about me and I'd appreciate it if we changed the subject."

"Why won't you talk about him?" Danse interrogated. "Did he leave you? Is that why you took the wedding ring off? Why you have his?"

Kait looked at the wall. "Please stop," she whispered in a broken voice.

Danse frowned deeply, "I just need you to be honest with me. If this man broke your heart, why do you need to find him so badly?"

That did it. Tears fell and Kait so hoped that he was happy with himself. She should have stayed in bed. No, she should have never even tuned into that broadcast in the first place.

"Kait," Danse spoke with authority.

"He's dead." Kait caved. With Danse blocking the door, she couldn't leave so instead she stomped across the room and sat on his bed with a thud.

Danse hesitated. That was not the answer he was expecting to hear. He turned to face her and she was looking down, roughly rubbing her palm to her eyes to help her suppress the crying.

"I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely.

"I'm sure you are." Kait mumbled sarcastically. "Why do you even care?" she slapped the back of her right hand to her knee as she dropped it. "What does it matter if it was a friend or my husband?"

"I need," Danse tried to find the answer himself. He didn't really know why it bothered him so much either. "to know you if I'm to work with you and trust you to have my back."

"You know my name," Kait bitterly said to him, "And that is my honest name. You don't need to know a single thing more about me."

Danse shook his head and sighed heavily, "Why do you push me away, initiate? You can trust me. I mean, you trust a synth out of all things!"

Kait stood quickly and approached Danse, surprising him. She rose her hand and grabbed his shirt by his chest. "Paladin- _Danse_ \- please _please_ just stop questioning me right now." He looked down at her in silence as she let go of his shirt then hovered it by his face. "If you want me," she pleaded, "to trust you. Then you have to give me time. Can I at least just ask for that?"

"Yes," Danse quietly spoke. Again, they were close and as he looked into her pained blue eyes, guilt twisted in his body when he saw her. There was something about her that made him not want to let her go. "I'm sorry Kaitlyn."

Kait exhaled with relief and rested her hand on his cheek now, his facial hair pricking at her fingers. " _Thank you_ Danse." She slid her hand off his face only for him to place his hand on her good shoulder.

"I'm glad to see you okay." Danse spoke and gave her shoulder a light squeeze. "Now," he removed his hand from her, "Elder Maxson has ordered me to bring you to him when you woke. You ready?"

Kait, assuming she didn't have a choice, just shrugged half heartedly.

Danse helped her up the ladder leading to the upper deck. Once there, she saw a Knight standing guard in power armor and a scribe fixing a panel on the wall with a blowtorch. When she turned around, Kait saw an open room with red couches on each side and all windows at the far end revealing a perfect sight of the Commonwealth. For a wasteland, it was a pretty breathtaking sight. In the center of the room was a man with his hair shaved on both sides but not the top. Fur lined the collar of his brown coat and even for its thickness, you could tell there was a strong man underneath.

"Elder Maxson." Danse spoke up as he put his fist over his heart.

Maxson turned to face him with his head first before turning the rest of his body to face the two. When Kait saw his face, the first thing she noticed was the deep scar on his cheek. And then of course his well kept beard. But if she thought Danse had strong eyes, she was wrong now that she saw Maxon.

"Ah," Maxon spoke with a deep voice but not quite as deep as Danse's, "You must be the new recruit. Kaitlyn, am I right?"

Kait nodded. She mentally kicked herself after the next words that came out of her mouth, "And you're Maxson. You're like, a God or something to the Brotherhood, right?"

Kait closed her eyes for a few seconds. She could just feel Danse's eyes boring a hole through her. "I-I'm sorry sir, I-"

To both Danse's and Kait's surprise, Maxson chuckled lightly. He shook his head, "I wouldn't say that. But I do have to be a role model." He looked into Kait's blue eyes and his smile widened. Something in her didn't really like that smile. "I hope I can leave a good impression on you."

Kait feigned the best smile she could, "I don't see why you wouldn't. I mean, you already have a sweet coat. That's enough to look up to."

Maxson actually laughed again, "Why thank you." Danse couldn't help but notice that the Elder only kept his eyes on Kait. "Paladin Danse told me you're a skilled fighter already. He didn't mention that you had a charming sense of humor."

"My jokes can be lost on some," Kait half shrugged.

"It's unfortunate," Maxson changed the subject, "that you and Danse became separated by a raider attack while searching for our fallen brothers and sisters."

 _A raider attack?_ Kait thought with sarcasm, _is that what he told him? That's nice._ She wasn't mad at Danse though. It was better that Maxson believed that lie rather than know the truth.

"But it's a blessing," Maxson was still talking, "that he managed to find you in time. I look forward to seeing you on the field, soldier. But he has discussed your situation with me. Of course, if you would stand with us, the Brotherhood would gladly help you find your friend."

Kait was surprised that Danse had actually already mentioned her situation to Maxson and was grateful for it. "Of course sir," she saluted just as Danse had showed her when she first joined the Brotherhood. "It would mean the world to me."

Maxson had finally dismissed the two after about another half hour of talking. He asked her how she liked the Prydwen, which she told him was impressive. Maxson seemed to have liked her answer, but then again, he seemed to have liked everything she had to say.

Kait was by herself, sitting at a corner table in the bar/ kitchen area. Her pip boy was returned to her and she temporarily had to wear it on her right arm while the left was recovering. She was drawing but this time, she didn't have that asshole Rhys to ruin it again for her. The ship was quiet save for the humming engine. It was late and most of the members were asleep. Light footsteps approached her and Kait looked up to see Danse as he pulled a chair up to the opposite end of the table from her.

"I'm sorry," Kait said before he could, "for _goofing_ off." She was talking about how she was drawing. When he was still quiet, she sighed but darkened in a line on the drawing, "I'm sorry about how I spoke to the Elder. I'm sure I embarrassed you."

"Kind of," Danse finally said but he wasn't mad.

"Does," Kait began as she looked up at him, "He act that casual around everyone?"

Danse shook his head as he was leaned back in the chair, "I've never seen him that casual around anyone."

"I must be special," Kait joked.

"He just met you," Danse spoke as if he didn't understand.

"Are you jealous?" Kait smirked at him. Before he responded, she returned to her picture, grateful that she was right handed, "I'm kidding Danse."

Danse, glad that she wasn't looking, awkwardly scratched his cheek. He hadn't expected her to say that. Instead, he changed the subject, "What are you drawing?"

Kait was quiet for a minute before she put her signature in the bottom corner. She stood from the table with the paper in her hand. As she stepped by him, she held the picture out to him. "For you."

Danse looked at her with some surprise before he grabbed the paper. When he did, she left the room to return to the medic bay for Cade to inspect her before she called it quits for the night.

Danse looked at the picture and didn't realize how truly well Kait could draw. Almost like a photograph, she had drawn the view she had witnessed once first emerging to the upper deck of the Prydwen. It was the room with the beautiful view that Maxson always stood in just minus the Elder. Through the windows, she even put small details of the Commonwealth outside. Danse smiled as he looked at it before retiring for the night himself though he made sure to put the picture in a safe place in his room before he caught some shut-eye.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Now that you're feeling better, I need to ask you a few questions." Knight-Captain Cade began. Kait was sitting on the edge of one of the stretchers and Danse stood next to her. She had to meet the crew. "It's just a medical procedure," Cade continued.

Cade walked up to her as he flipped through papers on a clipboard he held. "Now," he started, "since I've already had to do some blood work on you, I see that you're possibly the healthiest person I've ever met in my life." He searched through the papers, "You've never been exposed to large amounts of radiation at one time. No communicable diseases, no serious injuries until now." He looked up at her now, "How is that possible? Everyone on board has gotten radiation poisoning at least once."

Kait was quiet. She tried to think of an answer and could feel Danse's eyes on her. She was sure by now that he didn't believe her life story at all, even though he had only ever been told a few things. … which were mostly lies anyways.

"When were you born, initiate?" Cade asked now.

Kait closed her eyes as she sighed. "2051."

There it was. The shock that filled the room could kill someone.

"Kait," Danse said without a trace of humor in his voice. "This is serious."

Kait looked at him now with an unwavering gaze, "I am being serious." She knew the look Danse gave her was disappointment. All he wanted was for her to be honest with him and she felt genuine guilt for it. After all, he saved her life. She did owe him something.

As she spoke, her eyes only stayed locked with Danse's, "I emerged from Vault 111 a few months ago. In 2077, me and my family were evacuated to the vault due to the bombs dropping. We were frozen. I didn't wake up until recently. … I'm the only survivor."

Danse was speechless. As he looked into her pained blue eyes, he knew she was being honest for once. She finally looked away from him when Cade spoke up.

"You're telling me that you're well over 200 years old?" Cade said with disbelief.

"But I don't look a day over 30, huh?" Kait joked. Cade chuckled slightly and shook his head as he began jotting things down on the papers he had in his hands. After getting most of her origin story off her chest, he did continue with the questions. Most of them consisted of relationships with non-humans and if she's ever been sexual active with any of them. The only thing she didn't mention was her son, Shaun. Every time her mouth opened to mention him, her words were stolen from her. In the past, when she'd tell someone about her son, it always came out in some rushed flood of words and she always broke out in tears from it. She didn't want Cade to know. Or even Danse. If Danse knew, he'd tell Maxson. After that, all of the Brotherhood would know and she didn't need to hear the whispers as she walked by or be approached by those feeling like they had to give their condolences. She took a pass on that.

"Where are my clothes?" she finally asked.

They weren't really clean but she dressed in her drifters outfit and felt by her right pocket. The rings were still secured within. Being injured, Kait was on a medical leave from the Prydwen. The assignments they had lined up for her had to be put on hold or passed on to others. After meeting the crew, she decided to go home. Danse protested and insisted that she remain safe within the Brotherhood, but then again, wasn't she leaving soon anyways? She insisted that she was safer at home with those close to her.

She got a lot done when she was away from the Prydwen. She helped Nick kill an old enemy named Eddie Winter and in return, Nick told Kait his entire story. She helped the radio host of diamond city get his confidence back and even saved his brother. She helped countless more settlements and even found Paladin Brandis, the final missing person from the lost patrol. She and Nick underwent a truly scary experience at the Memory Den where Kait learned about a man named Virgil in the Glowing Sea who was the ticket into finding the Institute.

For about a week, she noticed a man that kept following her and when she confronted him, she learned he was with an organization called the Railroad that helped runaway synths. His name was Deacon and he and Kait got along fabulously. He was a smart ass liar just like she was. He tried to tell her he was a synth and also the true leader of the Railroad but Kait always rolled her eyes at his stories. One night after securing a safe house, the two camped up next to a fire they started on the top floor of a nearly destroyed building. There, he came clean with her and she knew that this time, he wasn't lying to her. Kait knew she could trust him even though he was the biggest liar she knew but even so, Deacon then learned about her full story too.

The Railroad also had access to high-tech equipment and Deacon promised that they'd help her find her son even more so than the Brotherhood could. Kait considered his offer. She felt drawn to the Railroad far more than she was to the Brotherhood but every time she thought about calling it quits to the force in the sky, her mind flooded with thoughts of Danse. She needed time to think about it.

Kait finally returned to the Brotherhood in full health. As soon as she reported in, she got assigned a mission with Danse to secure a Fort that was sitting on an arsenal of mini nukes. They boarded a Vertibird gunship and took on an army of Super Mutants with full force. Once on the ground, Kait took to the high grounds and stayed on top of a building and provided the Fullmetal Paladin with cover fire as he ripped through the Mutants as if they were just mere raiders.

Kait took a breath after the fighting had calmed from the outside and watched Danse through her scope. Something about him was off. He was more… bloodthirsty.

Danse turned in her direction and ordered her to catch up as he charged to the fort's entrance. Kait was there in minutes and the aura Danse was letting off was enough for Kait to want to get away from him. He caught her staring at him and spoke through the helmet he wore with a frightening authority, "Is there a problem, initiate?"

Kait, with her eyes still on him, just silently shook her head. She led the way into the fort. Her methods were far more silent as his and because of her lead, they avoided more firefights than they normally would have stumbled into if she let Danse lead the charge 100%.

Working as a team, the Super Mutants were cleared out with ease. More than once, Kait had caught Danse mumbling under his breath about the foes they had just faced.

"Danse," Kait's voice broke his thoughts. "What's wrong?"

Before they secured the armory, Danse had caved and told her why he despised Super Mutants so much. She could tell by his ever changing tense then calm posture, that he needed someone to talk to, and she listened. Kait had just a small feeling that there weren't many Brotherhood members that actually gave a shit about another's feelings. Especially a powerful Paladin that was always strong and ready for anything.

"Thank you," Danse sighed after his rant, "for taking the time to listen to me."

"Of course," Kait said calmly. Sometimes, they all just needed someone to talk to.

When they were back to the airport, Elder Maxson was actually out of his throne room and down to earth with the other Brotherhood members. He was standing up high as he gave an inspiring speech to all those who would die for him. Maxson already knew that the mission on Fort Strong was a success and the Brotherhood was celebrating because of it.

Night was upon the area but the airport lights kept the area bright as day. Kait stood in the back, away from the other members while Danse, leaving his power armor, had moved towards the front to be closer to his idol. As Maxson's speech went on, Kait couldn't help but feel more and more pushed away. He talked about the lesser beings in the Commonwealth. Upon discussing synths and how every last one of them needed to be destroyed, Kait thought about Nick and how she'd defend him with her life. Upon discussing those who didn't share the same beliefs as the Brotherhood, she thought of Preston and the Minutemen. Maxson made it clear that those who didn't side with the Brotherhood or didn't aid them when time demanded it, were all enemies standing in their way. And when Maxson did discuss the organizations that were against them, he stated that they needed to be destroyed. Not only did that include the Institute, but the Railroad as well. As the Brotherhood cheered and looked up to the large man in the fancy coat, Kait had a bitter taste in her mouth. How could she work in an organization that she didn't agree with? Once they gave her what she needed, she was leaving. She wasn't cut out to be a drone like the mass of people that flooded in front of her.

"He's so totally amazing, right?" a Brotherhood initiate said to Kait as they approached her. She couldn't help but note how his deep voice sounded forced. The speech was over and Maxson returned to the Prydwen while most of the Brotherhood stayed in the airport and celebrated.

"Yeah, sure." Kait answered just to say something but she tried to ignore the man as she felt out of place. She kept her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against a metal pillar holding a recently built platform.

"You wanna dance with me?" The initiate then asked.

Kait rolled her eyes. This wasn't prom, or some kind of party. There wasn't even music. "No," she stated with annoyance. She just wanted the man to go away.

Suddenly, the man's voice changed as he said, "Then let's just get out of here." With that, the initiate snatched Kait up in his arms and tossed her over his shoulder. Before Kait could hurt the man who was bothering her to no end, she then recognized his voice and a huge smile formed on her lips as he took her around the corner.

Danse, through the crowd, had been watching her and witnessed this but didn't see Kait smiling before she and the man disappeared from sight. Immediately, he began pushing through the crowd to come to her aid.

When the man put her down, her back was to a wall and she shoved the man back away from her, all while sporting a large smile on her lips.

"Deacon," Kait laughed. "You're an idiot."

"Did I do good?" Deacon asked cooly as he took out the sunglasses he always wore and put them on, regardless of how dark it was outside. Kait didn't even ask where he got the uniform. He looked off in the distance and nodded to himself, "I think I did good."

"I was going to punch you," Kait informed. "What are you even doing here?"

Deacon looked at her with a smile, "Rescuing a damsel in distress." He looked towards the area where the rest of the Brotherhood resided, "Okay, I will admit, their technology is pretty impressive but nothing Tinker Tom can't replicate." He looked back at Kait, "Do you really like these idiots?"

Before Kait could answer, a third voice spoke up, and it wasn't happy, "What's going on here?"

Both Kait and Deacon jerked their heads in the direction of the voice and there Danse stood, tall and scary as ever.

"Uh oh," Deacon groaned. "We're in trouble aren't we?"

Danse turned his hard stare to Deacon, "Who are you?"

"If I tell you," Deacon definitely pressed his luck with the ticking Paladin, "Then you might get mad at me. …. Uh, madder."

"You're not with the Brotherhood," Danse said. "I suggest you state your business here before things get out of hand."

"I'm just rescuing the Boss." Deacon assured as he patted Kait on the shoulder, which she looked awkward from. She knew Danse would take anything out on her and was definitely not looking forward to that.

"Deacon," Kait said softly as she cast the man of many disguises a look of warning.

"Who is he?" Danse demanded from Kait.

Deacon felt obligated to answer in her stead, "I was with the Railroad. Well, I still am actually but you guys peaked my curiosity with your cult." He took a step closer and spoke carefully as if he was about to tell a secret, "Tell me. … when does the kool-aid get passed around?"

"Excuse me?" Danse snapped. Kait let out an awkward laugh before grabbing Deacon by the shoulders and pulling him back.

"That's enough," She said calmly to him. "Just get out of here."

"You realize," Danse spoke to Kait again, "that this man is an enemy and he stands against everything we stand for. I should shoot him on sight."

Kait held her eyes to Danse as she pushed Deacon to stand behind her. "He wasn't causing harm."

"That's besides the point." Danse's features were hard and he was giving Kait the same glare that made her feel puny in his presence. "I will have him detained if he does not leave now."

"Aw," Deacon started again, "Does this mean that I don't get the poster of Maxson? Damn, I was going to hang it on my ceiling, right above my bed."

Kait turned quickly to Deacon. Even she knew when to stop. She walked to her friend with her hands up about to order him to leave. She didn't even have to look at Danse to feel the heat wave of anger he emitted.

Before she opened her mouth, a tight pain shot up her arm as Danse gripped her forcefully and yanked her away from Deacon.

"Hey-!" Both Kait and Deacon yelled at the same time. It was Deacon who continued however, "Don't grab her like that, man!"

When Deacon got too close to Danse, he released his grip from Kait and instead grabbed the collar of the other man. Kait panicked. She was terrified that Danse would hurt Deacon so she quickly grabbed Danse's hand and tried to force him to let go.

"Just leave Deacon!" Kait demanded.

When Danse lightened his grip, Deacon was away in seconds. "Some friends you got," Deacon huffed.

Kait tossed Danse's hand downwards and stepped away from the Paladin. "He's not a friend."

Deacon watched as the other man stared down at Kait after her words but she stared right back. A silent war was being fought between the two at the moment. "Well," he treaded carefully, "just stay safe Kait. You know where I'll be if you ever need me."

When the Railroad member was long gone, Danse spoke up with detest thick in his voice, "You always prove to be a disappointment. I've given you so many chances, yet you endlessly show that you could care less about our ideals and it's embarrassing to call you my recruit. Taking you under my wing has been the biggest mistake I've made yet."

Kait, growing ever hotter in body temperature from the boiling hatred inside her, responded "Now you won't make the same mistake twice. Don't worry _Paladin,_ as soon as I get my favor, I'll be gone. You won't ever see me again and I'll be forever glad to be as far away from you as I can be."

Kait stomped past her superior and exited the airport to return to the Prydwen. She was so agitated that the only way she could express herself without hurting anyone or anything was by pen and paper. She slumped in the same chair at the same table in the kitchen area that she had been at previously when she drew that picture for Danse.

It was only about ten minutes when Danse walked in. Kait assumed he wasn't done with her.

"For you," Kait announced as she flung her picture up for the Paladin to see. She snickered at his expression of disbelief. She had drawn the almighty Elder Maxson being held up on a throne by mindless followers. Maxson, in the picture, looked as much of a fool as Kait could express and the other main character of the masterpiece was none other than Danse. His eyes were large hearts and drool spilled from his open mouth as he obsessed over his idol like a rabid fangirl.

She knew that would only infuriate him more but frankly, she did not give a shit at this point. Danse snatched the picture from her, ripped it several times and then crumpled it up in a tight ball before tossing it in a nearby trash can.

"That's enough," he growled darkly. Danse grabbed Kait's arm again and dragged her from the chair she sat in before she even had the chance to stand. He forced her up the staircase around the corner and brought her to the barracks where only about three people were, though they were spread across the whole upper floor. Danse shoved her now to stand in front of him and she rubbed her arm when she had the chance.

"This isn't working," Danse spoke with seriousness.

"You just noticed?" Kait spat. "Tell me Paladin," she began as she opened her arms up wide, "What do you suggest we do about it?"

"I suggest," Danse replied calmly but in a voice that could chill the whole room, "that you pack your things now and leave. We're through."

Kait slowly dropped her arms but never broke eye contact with him. He was right. She was done with this shit. As she turned her back to him, she knelt by her footlocker and fumbled with the lock as he spoke again.

"I have a feeling that Nate would be disappointed in you as much as I am."

Kait's eyes raised to look ahead of her even though it was just her bed that filled her sight. Her chest tightened painfully and she bit her lip. How fucking dare he bring her late husband up and, better yet, compare him to this pathetic excuse of a man.

When she heard his voice sound again, she interrupted, "Don't you say his fucking name again."

"Nathan's gone." Danse started, "move on."

Kait exhaled loudly and closed her eyes. That was it. When she slowly looked over at Danse, she noticed that his foot was by another foot locker. Kait rose to a standing position and lunged at Danse while he had his guard down. When her shoulder hit his chest, the impact wasn't enough to drop him, but him tripping over the foot locker was and Danse slammed his back to the metal floor.

Kait was on him immediately and raised her fist high for an attack. When she brought it down, Danse grabbed her by the wrist and tossed her over, rolling with her to where he was on top now. She started struggling violently but Danse grabbed both wrists now and pinned them above her head.

"That's enough Kait!" Danse yelled.

"I can't stand you," Kait said through grit teeth. Her light blue eyes were watering as she looked up at the man overpowering her. "I fucking hate you!"

"Trust me," he began, "the feeling's mutual." When he rose off of her, she scurried to her feet immediately afterwards. He took a few steps back and knew that she was about to strike at any second. When the first punch was thrown, Danse stepped out of the way but she was already there for another attack.

Danse tried to calm Kait again but he could see in her eyes that she wanted him dead. When she lunged at him again, he caught her hand and twisted it behind her back, forcing her to face away from him. Kait grunted as Danse kicked the bend of her leg to drop her to her knees and he held her there. When she reached her free arm back, she grabbed ahold of his hair and started to pull but he quickly restrained that arm and held both behind her back, holding her with ease no matter how hard she struggled.

"Let go of me now!" Kait screamed.

"Not until you calm down," Danse muttered angrily.

"Stop this, now!" A voice raised to the max with authority split through the air. When the two fighting looked up, Elder Maxson stood a few feet away, staring the two down with disappointment lined on every inch of his face.

Danse released Kait and backed away but she remained on her knees, relaxed now however, but she kept her head low, not wanting to see anyone right now.

Maxson's eyes were on Danse, "Want to explain to me what happened Paladin?"

Danse bowed his head as he spoke to the Elder, "We had a disagreement and were both out of line. I apologize for letting things escalate to this level Elder Maxon, and I promise it won't happen again."

"It better not." Maxson ordered. "We don't need fighting to break out among our ranks during a time of war." He looked down at Kait as she still sat on her knees and averted her attention away from him. "Who started this?"

"I did," Kait spoke up before Danse had the chance to even though she still refused to look at Maxson.

"I see," Maxson said. "Come see me in my office. Now." With that, he turned and took his leave from the barracks.

When Maxson was gone, Danse stepped closer to Kait to help her stand but she did so herself. Before Danse could speak, she turned on her heel and slapped him as hard as she could across his face.

"Don't you ever," Kait spoke as if she were scolding a child, "speak about my husband again. You don't know anything about him and you sure as hell don't know anything about me." Danse just stood there in silence as she dismissed herself from the scene.

It turned out that Elder Maxson's _office_ was just his actual room. When Kait entered, she was instructed to close the door and she stood in front of it as Maxson began speaking.

"Tell me what happened."

Kait now lifted her eyes to meet his. She stayed quiet for a few seconds before she decided to open her mouth, "I insulted the Brotherhood and the Paladin. Personal things got brought up and that's when it got out of hand."

"Personal," Maxson questioned, "between the two of you?"

"No," Kait responded quickly and shook her head. The last thing she wanted people to think was that she and Danse had relationship problems. There wasn't even a relationship there.

"Do you realize how this makes you look?" Maxson asked sternly. "Starting a fight with your mentor and insulting the Brotherhood, this organization that you are representing? There were witnesses to your skirmish."

Kait looked down, "I'm sorry sir. I will take my leave immediately. This place is not for me."

"What?" he took a small step closer to her. "That wasn't the intention here. However, your actions have consequences. You will report to Captain Kells and Proctor Quinlan for your assignments for the next couple days. Think of it as community service."

Kait sighed audibly and shook her head again as she looked down. "Elder Maxson, I don't deserve to be here. Paladin Danse had already relieved me of my duties and I'm to leave tonight."

"My word," Kait didn't even hear Maxson step closer. "overrides his." He lightly touched her chin to make her look at him. When Kait looked into his dark eyes, she could tell that he favored her far more than he professionally should, and that left a sickening uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Get some sleep now." Maxson ordered and let his hand drop from her skin. "You're to report in first thing in the morning."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Kait was up first thing in the morning and was putting her boots on when she saw Danse for the first time since their fight. She looked up in the middle of tying her laces and noticed him before he noticed her. He was wearing his same, dark t-shirt with his dog tags hanging to his mid chest. He wore cargo pants and had them tucked into his combat boots at the bottom.

Danse caught her eyes and when he did, she quickly looked down as if she never looked in the first place. He didn't know that she was still on the Prydwen until then.

She reported to those who had tasks for her. For nearly the first half of the day involved tedious tasks such as organizing inventory, finding files for Quinlan, and having to help give lessons to the young recruits in the Brotherhood that were only children.

Kait was in the airport with three of the children. A superior officer had instructed her to give them shooting lessons, since her skill with a gun wasn't questioned. That day seemed like a training day for everyone as many members were scattered around in their own sections. Even Elder Maxson was overseeing some of the recruits. A small course had been set up and the kids were all given BB guns. Their targets were a variety of different sized targets to represent Super Mutants, feral ghouls, synths, and hounds.

"Don't get too excited because you're holding a gun," Kait lectured, "When you're in a real firefight, there is nothing fun about it. Just relax and take aim." She waited for the kids to get adjusted before ordering them to fire. For the most part, two of the children hit their targets fairly well. The odd one out, a boy, seemed to struggle at the task.

"Ugh! I can't do this!" The boy yelled in frustration. Kait, observing with her arms crossed, looked down at the boy, "What's wrong?"

"I can't …," the boy was obviously impatient. "I'm too young- I'm not good enough!"

"Of course you are," Kait calmly assured. "How old are you?"

"Ten."

Kait hesitated. That was how old Shaun was. She painted a smile on her face before moving right next to him and motioning him to raise his weapon. When he did, she noticed right away that his stance was off and he wasn't holding the gun properly.

"Here," Kait carefully took his hands and placed them correctly. When she was done she tapped the tip of the sight with her fingertip, "You see this? Use it. Place where you wish to hit your target right above this before firing. If it helps, close one eye to aim properly. When you understand firearms better is when you'll be better at judging distance and wind trajectories when firing at an enemy." She rose to her feet and took a step back for him to ready his shot but couldn't help but notice how he was fidgety. She lightly touched her fingers to his shoulder to get his attention. "Just relax."

The boy nodded and took a few more moments to himself. When deemed ready, he fired and missed the first shot but not the second, third, or fourth. A triumphant smile spread from ear to ear on him as he lowered his gun and cast his excited eyes to Kait. "Hey, thanks Knight!"

Kait was taken back slightly but shook her head with a smile, "Anytime. But I'm no Knight."

"You're not?" a girl piped up now.

Kait shook her head again but then struck a brave pose, "No but do you think I'd look good in shining armor?"

The children laughed and the third kid spoke now, "Definitely!"

From the distance, Maxson watched as Kait and the three children laughed together. Next to him, Danse stood.

"She is quite interesting," Maxson began to the Paladin, "Isn't she?" Danse remained quiet so Maxson continued, "I don't understand how you could so easily dismiss her from the Brotherhood. I know she'll be a tremendous asset to us."

Danse took a deep breath before speaking, "She doesn't listen well."

"You two seem to work together just fine when you have a similar goal," Maxson said as he finally turned his eyes away from Kait.

"I suppose," Danse almost mumbled. His blood didn't boil when he saw her this day, but he still wasn't pleased with her. Every time she was in sight, Danse noticed how Maxson would watch her every move as if she were a sight to behold. Though secretly, he did too. Danse would never admit such a thing however. He watched as the superior officer that first assigned Kait with target practice now dismissed her and sent her to the next task.

Kait walked quickly to the nearest Vertibird. Proctor Ingram needed help repairing power armor. As she walked passed the Elder and Paladin, she awkwardly messed with her fingerless gloves. She saw Maxson smile at her but he mainly kept her eyes locked with Danse's. She wanted to say something but nothing came out.

Ingram had her repairing her own personal suit of power armor. Kait wasn't the most familiar with the armor and when she did take it out on the field one day, she nearly got it destroyed. Ingram gave Kait the rundown on the basics of repairing but it went straight over her head. Nate was the one who was better with cars and fixing the television and refrigerator and whatnot. It was a talent lost on the Sole Survivor.

It was getting late and Ingram had left to attend to some other duty, leaving Kait alone. She heard chatter in the kitchen and upstairs in the science section but as of the power armor hanger, it was just her now. She sat on the floor and looked at a busted leg on the suit. Something was off with the shocks or the balance or whatever and Kait's head was already throbbing with trying to make heads and tails of it.

She stuck her hand in the suit and fumbled around with wires when she felt another being approach her.

"Here," the voice was soft for being so deep. Danse knelt down by her and waited until she took her hand out of the leg to take her place. "This is the problem." He pointed to a busted joint that needed a replacement. As he reached for the proper tool, his arm brushed against hers and she leaned a little away from him from it.

Danse, as if the fight the night before never even happened, took a seat by Kait and explained in less complicated terms on what was wrong with her suit. As he continued, she found herself asking questions which he had all the answers to. With his help, she succeeded in the repairs and smiled a little from the accomplishment, "Thank you Paladin."

Danse nodded, "If you ever need help with your suit, just come get me."

Kait nodded before standing up, which he soon followed. She was about to wish him a good night but she just awkwardly turned to walk away. When she took her first step, she felt Danse grab her arm but this time it was gentle.

"Kait," Danse looked slightly uncomfortable, "I just wanted to apologize about the night before. It was wrong of me to bring up your- … Well. Bring up _him_."

Danse let go of her arm and she looked away. "I appreciate that." She slowly looked back at him, "And sorry for starting the fight. I shouldn't have insulted you like I have. After all, you still did save my life. … maybe we should compromise?"

"How?" He asked.

Kait didn't have to think long on it, "Please don't ever use Nate against me again."

The expression that flashed on Danse's face was that of regret but he nodded willingly. "Okay. And you can't insult my beliefs anymore."

"It's a deal." Kait agreed. When she smiled up at him, he smiled back and that made Kait almost giggle.

"What?" Danse quickly asked. Before she answered, her hand got pressed over his mouth, covering it.

"Don't smile," Kait joked. "It doesn't look good on you."

Danse turned his head as a result of her words to move her hand but the smile still rested on his lips, "Well, it looks good on you."

Both of them immediately stopped smiling after his statement and Kait blushed vaguely from it. Did he just flirt with her? Danse started scratching his stubble awkwardly as he cleared his throat, "That wasn't supposed-"

"Good! You're still here!" Proctor Ingram walked in now. When she saw Danse too, her relief looked even greater. "Perfect. You're here too Danse. Just got word in that one of our patrols got overrun by raiders. They stole their power armor and took our brothers and sisters hostage. We need someone there _now_. You two up for it?"

Kait was left without words but Danse took action immediately as his serious switched flipped on. "We're on it."

The last known spot of the patrol was somewhere in the far southwestern area of the map but not quite at the Glowing Sea yet. As the Vertibird landed and let both Danse and Kait off, it didn't take long for them to find the source of the raiders. The only thing nearby was a large factory and also, it was littered with raiders that were throwing some kind of party. The whole wasteland could probably hear them.

Danse marched ahead while dressed fully in his power armor. Kait, on the other hand, stayed dressed in her own attire; she was more stealthy and nimble this way. Also, she was going to save the power armor she just repaired for when she went in search of Virgil.

When the first assault happened, Kait led the charge as she silently picked off a handful of Raiders before the others finally found them. With Kait in the back and Danse tanking through them from the front, the two were formidable. They cleared the outside area before entering the building from the front and in there, it wasn't long for another fight to start. Sure enough, they eventually came across a raider in power armor. They were in the right place.

They held their ground fairly well at first but eventually, they started to get overrun and couldn't kill them faster than they were pouring out. A baddie that Kait was scoped in on fled around around corner and she bolted to a nearby office to get a better angle on the guy from one of the windows. When she entered the room, she failed to notice the raider within.

He wore goggles and had greasy, spiky hair that was shaved on each side. His face was lined with either paint, dirt or old blood or all three and he wore the typical raider garb. He showed his brown, slimy teeth when he saw Kait turn her back to him and aim through her sniper.

Kait gagged and dropped her weapon when the man locked his arm tightly around her neck and dragged her away from the window. While attempting to choke her out, he pressed his body in close to hers and the first thing Kait noticed was how bad this man smelled.

"You smell pretty," The raider growled with impure intentions. He took a deep breath in as he pressed his nose to the top of her head to take in her scent. "I think I'll keep you."

Kait's head felt tight and light headed but she fought back by elbowing him in the side. Finally, she got him to ease up and once she slipped free, she snatched her rifle from the ground and swung it like a bat and hit the man right across the face with it.

The raider looked infuriated as he spit bloody teeth out but he immediately pulled a knife from his side. "I'm going to gut you, bitch!" He knocked her against the wall and stabbed his knife to her face but she caught it with both of her hands before it came in contact with her. She had to drop her weapon again as the man used all his strength on her and she used all hers in return but the man was proving to be stronger.

The raider kneed Kait hard in the ribs and she grunted loudly in pain, dropping her stance slightly and giving the man the upper hand. The tip of the blade started to scrape her cheek when she finally screamed out, "Danse!"

Coming to her rescue, Danse was there in a heartbeat. Without having to see the situation fully, he grabbed the raider as soon as he was in sight and threw him away from Kait. The raider hit the floor and before he could recover, Danse had brought the boot of his power armor on his chest and most definitely crushed the man to death.

"Thank you!" Kait panted. She was only very lightly bleeding on her face. Nothing major at all. Before he turned to her, some kind of explosive shot in the room and hit the center of Danse's back, making the fusion core in his suit bust.

Kait had covered her head when it happened. Before checking on Danse, Kait quickly grabbed her sniper and shot the raider that caused the explosion. She turned to the Paladin now and slid the sniper on her back. "Danse!" She yelled.

Danse, unmoving but still standing in his suit, finally yelled, "It's dark in here! I can't move; the suit won't open!"

 _Not good_ , Kait quickly thought. She rushed to the back of his suit and assessed the situation. The fusion core was definitely destroyed but she could still manually open the suit from the outside. She grabbed the wheel to turn and pulled hard. The metal was slightly hot from the attack but she pushed passed the pain.

"It-," Kait pulled down as hard as she could, "It won't budge!" She held her breath and strained herself to the max. A sharp exhale left her mouth as her hands suddenly shot downwards and the wheel finally turned, releasing a hissing noise and making the armor pop open.

Danse immediately hopped out of the suit and turned to her, "Thank you." He saw the light cut on her cheek and quickly raised his hand to it. "Are you alright?"

Kait nodded as he carefully slid his thumb on it but she lowered his hand for him, "We need to move."

The two made it to the next area and fought through the Raiders. Finally, they reached an even larger room with catwalks overhead. On one catwalk, a raider, most likely the leader, stood in a full suit of power armor and held a Fat Man on his shoulder.

"Welcome to the fuckin party!" The raider yelled. "I'm your gracious host for the evening and I say you need to lighten up!"

As Danse and Kait looked up to the raider, several canisters were thrown into the area. One landed by Kait's feet and when she looked down at it, she read a label titled 'HalluciGen'.

"Move!" Danse ordered as the canister by her feet busted open. Thick green smoke erupted from within and immediately rose to her face. Kait coughed as she accidently inhaled a breath full of the gas. Danse grabbed her and pulled her out before running with her to a nearby room. The raider leader had lifted his Fat Man and fired the first mini nuke at the two.

Danse shoved Kait in the room before following and slamming the door closed behind them to prevent as much damage as possible. The whole ground shook violently as an explosion screamed from outside. Kait had already lost her footing and fell flat on her ass while Danse held his ground. Mixed with the sound of the explosion was the sound of a structure falling. When all was silent, Danse tried to open the door again just out of curiosity but it wouldn't move.

"Dammit." He exhaled loudly. "It's caved in on the other side." He turned around and examined the room. It looked like a storage room. There were desks and terminals and a locked door that could only be opened from the computer. On the other side of the sealed area, the wall had been blown open to another room and that was their way out of there. Danse rushed to a terminal and found one locked. He wasn't able to hack into it but he knew Kait could. "Kait, I need-" He stopped mid sentence when he heard her laughing.

"Kait?" he rounded the desk and saw her still sitting on the floor but pointing at something- _nothing_ \- on the floor.

"What is that?!" Kait laughed hysterically.

Danse's expression filled with worry. She was high.

Kait looked back at Danse and wiped the tears from her eyes, "Hey! Paladin! When did you get here?"

"Kait," Danse tried, "I need you to hack this terminal." He pointed to the desk, "Can you do that?"

Kait gave Danse a confused expression. "What are you-," she looked ahead of her when she continued speaking but pointed at Danse with her thumb, "What is he talking about?"

Danse sighed with annoyance. They weren't going anywhere until she was better.

Kait was looking in another direction now, "No he doesn't! Okay, well, maybe a little but he's too grumpy all the time!" she looked over her shoulder at Danse, he was looking down at her with an irritated look on his face. Kait was silent for a few heartbeats before busting out laughing, "See?!"

Danse rolled his eyes and trudged across the room before sitting in a chair that was against the wall. Waiting was going to take a while.

"You're right," Kait almost whispered. She looked back at Danse first before then standing and approaching him.

"Sir Danse," she tried not to laugh. "We- no, _I_ , have a question for you."

Danse looked up at her and crossed his arms, "What?"

Kait looked serious now. "Why do you keep staring at me?"

Danse didn't know how to respond to that question but decided it'd be better not to feed into whatever she was planning. After all, she wasn't herself. It wasn't until she pushed his arms open and straddled his lap when he decided to speak, "What are you doing?"

Kait slid closer to him on his lap and grinned when she saw him starting to blush. "I've caught you more times than you think." She said in a soft voice, leaning closer with her face, "Looking at me…" Danse grabbed her waist to throw her off but she grabbed his hands with hers. "I just want to know why, Danse."

Danse wasn't amused, "I'm not playing your game."

"I'm not playing any game," Kait stated. Without letting him retort in any way, she closed the gap between them by pressing her lips to his.

Danse was shocked by her action and was lost for words when she pulled back.

"I know you've thought about it," Kait whispered seductively. She took his hands and started sliding them down to her thighs. "I know you love it when we fight. When you get to lay your hands on me… you like being rough with me…"

"Kait…," Danse breathed lowly. He hated how he closed his eyes and submitted to her next kiss. When he felt her tongue push past his lips and meet his was when he lost himself. Danse, with one hand, grabbed her ass tightly and with the other, he gripped the back of her hair and stood with her before slamming her back to the wall. Kait wrapped her legs tightly around Danse's waist as he held her up to his level and kissed her with such lust and force that she almost couldn't breathe.

"Take me," Kait begged and that produced a deep growl from him. She moaned when he started kissing her neck and gasped when he bit her flesh roughly. "Make me submit to you."

When Danse pulled his head away from her, she could see the want burning in his eyes. He started fumbling around with his pants while still holding her up when he heard her start laughing. Her laugh made him snap back to reality when he realized that she was still high and just messing with him. He felt disgusted for losing himself. He needed to be stronger than to submit to his feelings and he knew that Kait wouldn't want this if she was in her right mind.

Danse pulled her off of him but when she tried to grab him in a sexual manner, he grabbed her arms and dragged her near a desk. He found rope in the room; it was a storage room after all, and tied her wrists together before forcing her to sit and tying her to the leg of the desk next.

"Hey!" Kait yelled but with a small hint of amusement. "C'mon Danse! Don't be that way!"

"Shut up." Danse ordered as he crossed the room to be as far away from her as he could. She was laughing and talking to herself again and Danse rubbed his eyes roughly from it. He was tired and this was going to be a long night.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Danse," Kait called to him. He seemed lost in thought. "Danse!"

Danse snapped his head up to her. She had been talking for about thirty minutes straight so he wasn't paying attention when she actually tried to converse with him.

"Untie me. I'm better." Kait assured.

Danse believed her immediately. She had the same, almost depressing calm look on her face that she normally had rather than a permanent one of amusement. He crossed the room to her and began undoing her binds. While kneeling next to her, his voice sounded hesitant when he spoke, "Do you remember anything? While you were out of it?"

Kait shook her head then rubbed her wrists as they were free. "I don't." Danse looked relieved but what he didn't know was that she actually did. And never would she bring it up. She was infuriated with herself for her actions and disgusted that she so easily threw herself at him. She was grateful however that he stopped it from going too far. Even though he did lay his hands on her, she couldn't be mad at him for it. It was all her fault.

Danse pointed at the terminal on the desk again for a second attempt. "We can't get out of here until that door opens and that computer is the only thing that can open it. Can you hack it?"

Kait nodded and walked around the desk immediately. It only took a few seconds and the thick metal latches slid open and they were free from that room. The two crossed through the destroyed wall on the other side to a new room with an elevator. Assuming the head raider was on the top floor- the bosses always are- they both hopped in and took a ride up.

"How many were on patrol?" Kait questioned in the elevator. "Four?" When the Paladin nodded, she asked next, "Did they all have power armor?"

"Only three." Danse informed. "We took one out on the base floor. The raider with the Fat Man has another and we haven't seen the third yet."

" ( _ping) Top floor"_

As the door opened, Kait and Danse dropped to a crouching position. Most of the lights were out save a few that were flickering. Kait took the lead and had her sniper out and ready in her hands. They hugged the wall as they came to an edge that led into a room that had plugged up spot lights to illuminate the room. When Kait peeked around the corner, she saw a man in power armor but not the same boss guy and two other raiders standing around talking. There was another doorway in the far corner leading to yet another room.

"Why are we just standing here?" Raider 1 said.

"The Boss said that our guests might come this way," The one in power armor stated.

Raider 2 spoke now, "Bullshit. There's no way they survived that blast!"

"Are you doubting the Boss?!" The power armor one yelled.

"N-no..," raider 2 said with slight fear in his voice. "But what about the prisoners?"

"We took out the only ones coming to their rescue," raider 1 began. "I say we just kill them now."

"But keep the girl!" Raider 2 quickly chimed in.

"Good idea," the armored one laughed.

Kait felt sick with the wicked laugh the three shared and when the two left the room, leaving only the power armor one, she knew they needed to hurry.

"Hey," Kait whispered to Danse as she looked back at him. "What will happen if the fusion core is removed from the power armor."

Danse, not having the chance to look around the corner yet, whispered back, "It'll open. Why?"

Kait looked around the corner again real quick before looking back at him, "Do you trust me?"

Danse hesitated. The question didn't bother him, the fear of her getting herself killed did. "What are you planning to do?"

"Just… trust me." With that, Kait was around the corner with swift silence. She quietly moved the sniper on her back as she approached the back of the man in power armor. Once behind him, she slowly raised to stand and grabbed the fusion core before twisting it and pulling it out. The power armor hissed and the raider yelled with surprise from within.

"What the fuck is this suit doing?!" He yelled as all the parts popped open, revealing him within. With a brief grunt, he was yanked out of it and Kait slipped the knife from his belt before plunging it deep in his chest and slicing roughly to the side, splitting open his chest. Kait stepped back as she let the limp body smack the ground. While still standing there, one of the previous raiders rounded the corner.

"What's going on-" He suddenly flinched when seeing Kait and she pulled the revolver from her waist and fired two shots, landing one in the man's chest and the other in the head.

Not even given a moment to breath after she fired her shots, a grenade was lobbed in the room and Danse yelled, "Kait! Move now!"

Kait looked at the grenade then at Danse and immediately tossed the fusion core to him before sprinting in the opposite direction. The impact from the explosion slightly pushed her and she landed in the next room on her side. When she started to push herself up, she noticed raiders running passed her and into the room that Danse was in but the last one in power armor, the boss, stood over her.

"We were expecting you," he said with an evil chuckle. While Kait was still down, he kicked her in the side with his armored boot with tremendous force. Kait immediately hacked from the loss of air as she felt her ribs break from the impact and she fell over on her back. Gunfire sounded in the other room but Kait could do nothing to help. She held her hand up pathetically as the raider boss stepped over her, raised her by her collar, and backhanded her with the armor, instantly making her world go black.

Another terminal locked, thick metal door slid open, pouring light into a pitch black room. Once illuminated, four Brotherhood members were shown- three males and one scribe female. They all looked beaten and one of the males had a broken leg. The Boss raider had tossed a disarmed Kait in the room. Her unconscious body bounced a little from the drop and before the door was shut again, it was shown that her face was already starting to swell and turn a bruised purple, her lip was busted and blood was present in her mouth.

Danse had to fall back as the Raiders pressed on. He had to retrieve a combat shotgun from the ground as his laser rifle started falling low on ammo and make a stand with that. He tried to believe that Kait was still alive but he lost sight from her after the grenade and he hadn't heard her after that. Regardless, the Raiders needed to be stopped and he had to save his brothers and sister. He crouched low behind a desk and stayed quiet, taking tips from Kait. He knew that he didn't stand a chance if he tried to take all the Raiders head on so he adjusted to her methods. He suddenly released a heavy exhale that he didn't realize he was holding- he desperately prayed that she was alright.

"Hey," the female scribe weakly spoke as she felt for Kait's body and lightly shook her when she did find her. "A-are you still alive?"

Kait squeezed her eyes tightly and released a painful groan as soon as she started regaining consciousness. It hurt so much to just breathe. She opened her mouth to speak but just released more whimpers of pain.

"Where are you hurt?" The scribe asked in urgency even though she couldn't see the survivor.

Kait eventually managed to move her right arm to the left as she cracked her eyes open to see only darkness. She hit a button on her pip boy and the whole room lit up a bright green color. When she saw the scribe crawl over to her, she shakily grabbed the bottom of her shirt and tried to pull it up but that required too much movement for her to handle.

The scribe looked at the others with her. "Help me here." The two brothers without the broken leg quickly went to Kait's side. One very carefully lifted her so her back wasn't fully on the ground and the other helped the scribe with her next task.

"I'm going to take a look," the female informed.

"Are you with the Brotherhood?" The one holding Kait up asked.

Kait slowly nodded and her face twisted in pain as the scribe carefully began rolling her shirt up.

"Then we're all dead," the one with the broken leg spoke up. He almost broke down, "I-I can't believe I'm going to die like this…!"

"We can still make it," the last male spoke now, trying to reassure the group but not sounding convinced himself.

The scribe rolled Kait's shirt up to just under her breasts and saw the dark blue and purple bruise on the right side of her ribcage and the disfigured outlines of the ribs on her skin. Two, probably three ribs had been broken.

"We can treat this on the Prydwen," the scribe said with an uneasy voice.

"We won't make it to the Prydwen!" The one with the broken leg snapped.

"That's enough Knight!" The one holding Kait yelled.

"Danse…," Kait whispered, getting all of their attention. "He's still out there.."

Danse stepped from around a corner and blasted the head off a raider that was nearing. When the body fell, Danse quickly reloaded his shotgun to full capacity again and got the next shell ready. He sprinted down the nearest hallway but heard the stomping of running feet from behind him. He turned corners until he managed to get into the first room that he and Kait originally got separated from. There, standing on presentation for him was the empty power armor suit. Danse slid his hand in his pocket and retrieved the fusion core from within, knowing exactly what to do next.

The metal door opened again to the prisoner's room and three raiders stepped in with guns in their hands and already aiming at the Brotherhood members.

The one in the middle pointed at Kait, who now had her shirt down and was lying on the floor on her own. He approached her and when the two okay Brotherhood males went to move to her defense, the other two raiders aimed their guns at them.

"Make a move and we shoot."

The middle raider with possibly the nastiest face reached Kait and grabbed her by the shirt, lifting her up a little. "Where did the other one go?"

Kait was silent and breathed heavily before blinking her eyes slowly. She wasn't going to answer.

"Where, bitch?!" He yelled and punched her in the broken ribs, forcing her to scream in pain.

Without wasting another moment, the two male Brotherhood members made their move and each took on a raider standing at the door. When the middle one harassing Kait fully realized this, he pulled a pistol out to defend his people but the scribe jumped on him. One brother slammed a raider against the wall and disarmed him while the other knocked the second raider out in one hit. The middle raider elbowed the scribe off and knocked her on the ground.

"Fucking cunt!" He yelled and aimed his weapon at the scribe. He fired but the bullet hit the floor by her head as Kait rammed the raider to the side with her shoulder, immediately falling back over on her side and crying out from the pain that hit her.

When the tackled raider recovered, he was hit again and knocked on his back as the brother with the broken leg managed to limp over and defend the Brotherhood as well. He was over the raider and hit him once before taking the pistol and shooting him three times in the body. More gunshots sounded as the Brotherhood member who disarmed the raider then killed the other two.

The door, because of the terminal wired to it, quickly slammed shut again and one of the brothers ran to it and slammed his fist to the metal. "Fuck!"

Danse tanked through the rest of the raiders when he had the suit of power armor on. The last thing he needed to was to kill the head raider and find Kait and the others. He reached the final room and standing ready for him was the one with power armor, his Fat Man still on his shoulder.

"It's about time you showed up!" The boss yelled, "Did you really think you could save them? Ha! They're already dead; slaughtered like little piggies!"

 _He's lying_ , Danse told himself as he stared down the raider.

"And you're next!" The raider raised the Fat Man for the next attack and fired. Danse stepped quickly out of the way as the mini nuke flew passed him and into the room behind him. The power armor he wore absorbed all of the aftershock of the blast and he sprinted to the raider and punched him hard in the helmet he was wearing, staggering the leader.

Danse raised his shotgun and began firing at the same part of the raiders suit until the metal plating began to falter and expose the body underneath. The raider charged at him to ram him to the floor but Danse caught his attack and punched the raider in the stomach where he weakened the defenses. He managed to grip a loose piece of metal and rip it off the suit, revealing some of the human within. The raider started hitting Danse as much as he could but the Paladin shoved him off and raised his shotgun again. It only took one shot to split the raider's stomach open but Danse fired a few more times just to be safe. Blood thickly flowed from within the suit and spilled to the floor as the boss in the power armor crashed to the ground face down and dead.

Danse took that moment of silence to take a deep breath. When observing the room, there was only one locked door within and a terminal on a desk against the wall. The power armor popped open and Danse stepped out as he went to the computer. It was locked but right next to it was a ripped piece of paper that read: " _I swear to God if you forget the password one more fucking time, we will fucking kill you! The password is fucking_ _ **CUCUMBER**_ _! Why the boss assigned you to this is beyond me._ "

That was easy enough.

When the metal door opened and the light from the room filled the cell, there wasn't a body in sight. Danse's heart dropped when he didn't see anyone. Was the raider telling the truth?

"Kait?" he found himself saying.

After the Paladin's voice sounded, a head poked around the corner. "Danse? Is that you?"

Danse exhaled sharply at the sight of his fellow Paladin. Soon after the brother spoke, he stepped around the corner helping a Knight with a broken leg walk out. Next was the scribe and lastly another Knight but he disappeared from around the corner for a moment. Danse was overly relieved to see his brothers and sister still in one piece but couldn't help but scan the room for signs of Kait. His chest then tightened when the other Knight returned to sight with his arm carefully around Kait. Kait was pale and had her head hanging low. She was breathing heavily but it sounded as though she was having a great deal of trouble in doing so.

"You don't know how much we owe you Paladin," the scribe said to Danse. "We need to call a Vertibird right away though. We have a Knight here with a broken leg and," she regarded Kait, "she has a few broken ribs that require medical attention immediately and has possibly suffered a concussion."

When they made it outside, they all retrieved their stolen weapons, the other Paladin took the only good working power armor and Danse had all of Kait's guns on him as he was now helping her walk. When one of the brothers started setting up a radio, Kait got Danse's attention without speaking. She regarded her pip boy and made Danse tune into the station that the Brotherhood was broadcasting for them. After following the instructions given, a Vertibird was there in less than an hour. As it landed, the six started boarding the gunship. When Kait got closer, she suddenly fainted from her lack of air intake and the nausea taking over her body. Danse swiftly lifted her before she could fall to the ground and held her up in his arms.

"Kait!" He tried. "C'mon, stay with us!"

They were back to the Prydwen in no time. Several medical brothers and sisters met them on the flight deck. One helped the Knight with the broken leg and another took Kait from Danse. She hadn't woken up the whole flight back. The others checked the rescued Brotherhood members for any serious injuries as they entered the Prydwen.

Hours have passed and everyone was okay. Everyone besides Kait. She had broken out into a high fever and Knight-Captain Cade feared that she may have contracted pneumonia. Danse leaned against the wall on the outside of the medical bay while Cade and Maxson were within discussing her injuries.

The rescued scribe approached Danse from outside and spoke up softly but with worry thick in her voice, "She saved my life. … God I hope she's okay. If it wasn't for the two of you, we'd be dead… or worse."

Danse was sick with worry too but he tried his best not to show it. Instead he nodded and said back, "I'm glad we made it in time. She did good for a recruit."

"She's just a recruit?" The scribe said in disbelief. She shook her head, "She definitely deserves a promotion after this."

Maxson now stepped out of the room and with the hard expression on his face, the scribe dismissed herself. Before Danse could ask how she was, Maxson spoke up as if reading his mind, "Cade said it will take six to eight weeks for her to recover. … If she can make it that far."

The Elder turned on Danse and the look on his face was enough to scare even the Paladin, "What happened? How could you let this happen to her, Danse?!"

Danse wasn't prepared for the sudden hostility and tried to respond without a wavering voice, "We were far out numbered and underestimated our enemy. We got separated. I promise this will never happen again Elder Maxson."

"You're damn right it won't!" Maxson yelled. "I should relieve her from your charge; you'll only end up getting her killed!"

Danse started to get irritated but would never dare raise his voice to his idol, "I tried sir. I got to them as fast as I could."

"Yet you were the only one who made it out without any injuries," Maxson growled. "Were you playing it safe, Paladin? Afraid that it would have been you in there?"

"No," Danse immediately protested. "I would never do such a thing! I lay my life on the line every day for the Brotherhood. I would die for any of my brothers and sisters if it meant saving them."

"Well," Maxson was still fuming, "Kaitlyn proved that she's willing to do the same today. You will not make us lose her, Danse."

Cade was heard as he reacted quickly to whatever was happening in the room. Soon after, a horrible noise sounded as Kait started vomiting. When Danse and Maxson ran into the room, it was the first time she's been awake since leaving the raider factory and she was sitting up on the edge of the bed, throwing up in a bucket that Cade had given her. The bruised side of her face couldn't have looked any worse as the swelling progressed, her lip was still busted open and bleeding again and thick tears fell from her eyes as her face was in a permanent twist of agony.

"Try to relax," Cade ordered Kait.

When Kait was done, she still sat up and gripped the edge of the bed tightly. Danse hadn't seen her ribs until then. Kait still had her pants on but they had put white wraps around her breasts just so her ribs could be exposed without her being. Her skin was flushed a sickening purple on her right side and Danse could see what the others were talking about. It didn't take a medical professional to know that her ribs were broken.

"I-it's too much…," Kait sobbed to Cade weakly. Her voice was almost inaudible and she kept her head low as she shook it. Her breathing was uneven and scarce. "I c-can't... the pain…."

Cade turned to Maxson and Danse, "Please, let her rest now." They nodded but saw Cade carefully help Kait lay back down on the bed. He grabbed an IV and placed it in her arm before pumping pain relievers in her body.

Danse was the last to leave and Maxson left his presence without a word more but not before giving the Paladin a cold look. An unbearable amount of guilt and disappointed crushed down on his body. He couldn't help now but think that he could have prevented something and having the man he looked up to scold him and be clearly disappointed in him was enough to put him down. For now though, they did everything they could and Danse slowly made his way to his room for the night.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It was only a week in and Kait was very ill in the middle stages of pneumonia. Cade insisted that she try to eat something but she didn't have the stomach for it. Her face was nearly better but her ribs felt just as horrible. She could breathe a little easier but every time she vomited, it would just make everything worse again. She hadn't seen anyone since being treated on the Prydwen besides Cade. Maxson and Danse were there the first day but she hadn't even seen the Paladin in a week.

Kait was on the edge of the bed when Cade came in with a bowl of fresh vegetable soup for her. "You need to eat something."

Kait looked at him with half lidded eyes and shook her head. She was broken out in a cold sweat and her skin was paler than normal. "I don't… want it.."

"It's not up for debate," Cade said. He approached her and held the bowl under her head then put it to her dry lips when she caved and leaned in. He slowly tilted the bowl and let her drink some of the broth, her hands raising to the ceramic to hold the bowl for herself.

"When you're done," Cade began as he walked to the counter in the room, "I have more antibiotics for you to take." He turned when he heard the bowl clank to a nearby table and sighed when he saw that it was hardly any lower. He shook his head and came to her with a glass of water and the pills in his hands. "Don't throw this up please. I'm running low."

Kait gagged lightly just from the thought of more vomit but she slowly swallowed down the pills before laying back down on the bed and closing her eyes to try to get more sleep.

Four days passed and Kait was finally over her fever and sickness. Cade had given her permission to walk around the Prydwen if she wished but to be careful climbing stairs and he forbid her from climbing the ladder to get to the upper deck that led to Maxson's favorite room.

Kait was standing and had her shirt lifted enough to see her ribs. The bruise was more black in color now. When she pulled her shirt back down to exit, she turned and saw four familiar faces in the doorway.

"How are you feeling?" The rescued scribe asked with a smile on her face.

"Uh," Kait really didn't expect to see them. "Good- better at least. Thanks for asking."

She nodded and the Paladin of the group spoke next, "We never had the chance to properly thank you for what you guys did. We are forever in your debt and if you ever need help, we'll be here for you."

Kait managed a smile. It always felt good doing a good deed. "Thank you. But it wasn't just the Paladin and I. You guys held your ground too."

"Regardless," the Paladin continued, "we're grateful. We just spoke to Danse and decided to stop by. Cade said you weren't sick anymore so we thought now would be a good time."

Kait nodded yet another thanks to them and the four departed. Her eyes fell to the floor when she thought about what the Paladin said. They had just spoke to Danse? He's on the Prydwen? Why hasn't he stopped by- no wait. Why did she care? Well.. it would be the polite thing to do, seeing as they went to hell and back in the factory together but she guessed that it wasn't that big of a deal. Still, it bothered her that she was bothered by him not stopping in.

Kait pushed the thoughts aside and exited the medical bay and took towards the power armor hanger before heading upstairs to her barracks. When she made it past the kitchen, walking slowly, she saw the ever tall Proctor Ingram looking at the back of a suit of power armor hanging up while speaking to someone.

Ingram saw Kait and her eyes lit up, "Kait! You're actually up and walking around?"

"Trying to," she said with a sideways smile. When she came in view of the one Ingram was conversing with, her face dropped. Danse looked back at her with his dark, distant eyes before turning them away from her and regarding something to Ingram on the suit.

Something in Kait's chest tightened when he looked away from her. Fine, if he was going to be that way then so would she. Ingram watched as Kait started climbing the stairs and called, "Hey, do you need help?"

Without looking back, Kait shook her head, "I'm fine."

Week 3 was down and she assumed that her ribs would never heal. When questioning Cade about it, he told her that it normally takes about six weeks for broken ribs to heal and that hers were damaged far worse than a typical, accidental break. After all, she took a hit from fucking power armor.

Kait decided to spend all of her free time either drawing or helping the Brotherhood with low labor tasks, such was helping Quinlan organize the documents he would get but he usually just scolded her for getting side-tracked by his cat.

"This is preposterous." Quinlan was reading a document but not one of the technical ones. "This man murdered a family and they found him to be not guilty. If you read the evidence, there's no doubt it was him."

Kait's interest was peaked as she walked up to him. She held her hand out in the _may I?_ fashion and took the document from him. She was quiet as she read it then nodded after a moment, "There was no doubt he did it. But they messed up when they tried him too soon for murder. You see here?" she pointed at some dates, "They didn't have enough evidence to prove it was him until after the first court case. They were so confident that he'd be found guilty that they tried him for murder in the first and second degree, aggravated assault, breaking and entering, and trespassing. When he was let go the first time, they then brought him back but they already used all the trials during the first run that the closest thing they could pin on him was third degree murder or manslaughter, which he committed neither. So he had to be let go. It looks like he never committed any theft, arson, or even got a speeding ticket afterwards so there was nothing left they could bring him in for. Or nothing that would even bring him close to being found guilty."

When she was done, the room was eerily silent. Kait looked up at Quinlan and he just stared blankly at her.

"What?" Kait finally broke the silence.

"What was that?" Quinlan asked.

"What was what?"

" _That_." He stressed. "Am I supposed to believe you have knowledge in the criminal justice system?"

Kait half shrugged, "Maybe. I graduated from law school after all."

Quinlan laughed and Kait frowned as he took the document from her and walked away. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

"You and your sense of humor," Quinlan stated.

"I'm serious," Kait said. When Quinlan turned to face her, he stopped mid laugh when he saw she wasn't joking.

"What, for real? I always assumed you were just some starving artist." Quinlan stated.

"I just drew in my spare time," Kait smiled now. "Nate always said-" she choked on her words and then cleared her throat as she turned her attention to an open filing cabinet.

Quinlan already knew about her late husband and knew she wouldn't want to talk about anything so instead he gathered some folders and handed it to her, "File these in please."

It had been over a month now and Kait was called to Elder Maxson's upper room, or his throne room as Kait would call it, for something he wished to discuss with her regarding the rescue she and Danse did.

She climbed the ladder to the upper deck and that made her side ache but not nearly as bad as she thought it would. When she entered the room, he had his back to her and was looking out the large window just as he always did.

"How are you feeling?" he asked without looking at her. Before she answered, he motioned for her to approach and she did so, standing almost next to him.

"Cade said it'll only be a few more weeks and I'll be back to full health." She answered.

"That's great news," Maxson said as he now looked over at her with a smile.

Kait felt awkward under his gaze and glanced out the window to the Commonwealth. It was dark and raining. "There was something you wished to talk to me about?"

"Yes there is," Maxson began. He turned his body more towards her as he continued, "That rescue mission that you two did was a great success but it nearly cost the Brotherhood you. I've read everyone's report of what happened and from what I understand, you were outstanding during the mission and risked your life for your brothers and sisters." Kait looked over at him now and she swore that he was closer. Maxson spoke, "I know that you haven't had the best experience with us and, from what Danse has told me, you plan on leaving us after we help you into the Institute. Is this correct?"

Kait hesitated. Danse told him that? Of course he did. Danse would shoot himself in the foot if Maxson wanted to see what it looked like. "Yes Elder."

Maxson nodded slowly and seemed to have thought about his next words. "Normally we don't just let one of our own join and leave just like that. And I don't plan on making exceptions."

Kait's ego told her to yell in this man's face and tell him that she'd like to see him try to make her stay but her common sense kept her mouth closed. She genuinely feared that he'd have her hunted down and executed if she did leave for good.

"But I didn't ask you here to lecture you," Maxson started. "I asked you here to tell you that you're being promoted. You deserve every bit of it and I'm proud to call you a Knight among our ranks."

A promotion? Did she do that good? "Um- thank you sir." She stammered and from her bashful look, Maxson smiled. She froze as he raised his hand to her and slid it along her cheek in a caress.

"I was so scared that we were going to lose you," Maxson said with a seriousness in his voice.

Kait didn't respond and instead raised her hand to remove his. She got all the hints and signs that Maxson had something for her but she didn't want any of it and he didn't need to lay his hands on her. As her fingers brushed his, he quickly slid his hand through her hair and to the back of her head as he pulled her into a strong kiss. Kait was pulled to him and she pressed her hands in the fur of his coat on his chest to get ready to push him back but the sound of footsteps was what broke Maxson's lips from hers.

Kait took a large step back and covered her mouth with her hand before she looked at who had interrupted them and when she did, a quick jolt shot through her body and her eyes widened a bit.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt," Danse said as he bowed his head apologetically. He had a clipboard in his hand and must have had a report or file for Maxson to look over.

"It's alright Paladin." Maxson said almost as a heavy sigh. "Is that the report?"

"Yes Elder." Danse answered. He felt sick to his stomach at the sight he just witnessed and when he brought the clipboard to Maxson, his eyes slid over to Kait's. They were cold and even a tiny bit of anger was present.

"Thank you," Maxson said after he read the report. He smiled as Danse looked back at him and then regarded Kait. "You want to congratulate our latest Knight?"

Danse accepted but when he spoke directly to her for the first time in over a month, his tone, at least in Kait's opinion, sounded sarcastic. "Congratulations Knight. I know you worked hard for it."

Kait narrowed her eyes at his words. Why did he have such a grudge for her all of a sudden? Before Danse could exit, she turned to the Elder, "Thank you sir, but I should probably return back to Cade now." When Maxson nodded, she dismissed herself from the room.

Kait got back to the lower deck and could hear Danse right behind her but he didn't say anything to her. Instead, he turned to enter his room and before the door was shut behind him, Kait rushed in after him for some answers.

"What is your problem Danse?!" Kait yelled, startling him as she slammed the door behind her.

He quickly recovered, "There isn't one."

"Yeah," Kait mocked, "bullshit." She took a step closer to him and pointed her finger accusingly at him, "I almost died a month ago and you've yet to say anything to me until you were forced to. You've done nothing but ignore me this whole time. What did I do to you?"

"Nothing, Knight. Now please leave my room." He ordered instead of asked.

Kait dropped her hand, "Not until you talk to me!"

"There is nothing to talk about!" Danse argued back. He went to open the door for her but she stepped in his way.

"What did I do to make you hate me?" Kait demanded.

Danse towered over her and looked down into her blue eyes, "Why does it matter to you?"

"It doesn't- or does- or… I don't know!," she stopped as she started tripping over her own words. She looked away and shook her head gravely, "I just thought that maybe- _maybe_ \- we could move past our differences and…," she closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, "Was it because I rushed ahead without telling you what I was planning?"

Danse parted his lips to speak but fell short. He really hated himself at the moment and the next words he spoke were what he felt he needed to say, not what he really wanted, "You are just a liability. I can't risk working with you anymore." The crushed look on her face struck him to the core. What he really couldn't get out of his head is what Maxson told him. … He would only get her killed and he would never forgive himself if she did die. She did almost die twice now already.

"I…," Kait couldn't look at him anymore. Why did it hurt so much for him to say that to her? "I-I didn't know you felt that way Danse…."

 _I don't_ , Danse told himself.

"I guess…," Kait sounded on the verge of tears, "I'm out of chances, huh?" When he didn't answer, she continued, "Does this have anything to do with Maxson? Did he say anything to you or is it because of what you just witnessed?"

It had everything to do with what Maxson told him and it didn't help to see them kiss either. "No, it doesn't." Danse lied.

Kait nodded, still refusing to look at him. She turned her back to him and opened the door to leave. Before fully exiting, she added, "I was going to push him away. I truly didn't want that."

When Kait was gone, Danse slapped his hands to his head and gripped his hair tightly as he paced around the room. His chest tightened so much to where it was almost unbearable. How could he do that to her? He found himself caring way too much about her and he punched the metal wall as hard as he could, actually putting a slight dent in it and bruising his knuckles. He knocked his forehead to the wall next and stood there, rubbing his hand across his face. He could never forgive himself for hurting her this way.

Kait was walking down the corridor as if she was lost. She put a hand to her head and hit the wall to her left as she became lightheaded and breathing became hard. There wasn't anyone in sight and she didn't feel like calling for help. Instead, she waited it out until she could walk again and she made her way to the very bottom of the Prydwen where no one ever was. And sat down against some of the metal railings under the metal, grated floor. Her ribs were aching but she didn't care, she was crying. She scratched and pulled at her pants until she ripped open the pocket she sewed on the right side, getting the two wedding rings out. She slipped hers on and clutched Nate's tightly in her hand.

"Nathan…," Kait whispered in a defeated voice. "I love you and I miss you so much. I wish you were here with me. …. I will always love you with all my heart and I'll find Shaun… I promise I'll find him…."

Kait leaned her head back and cried silently. She hated the way her heart hurt and hated no matter how much she tried to push the thoughts away and to banish them forever, she kept thinking about Danse.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kait was better completely now. She wasn't kicked out of the Brotherhood or anything; she and Danse just never went on assignments together after he told her she would just keep getting in the way. Kait had started wearing her wedding ring again and took the chain to her Brotherhood holotags that she never wore and removed the tags then replaced them with Nate's ring. She kept telling herself it was because she didn't care how many people knew anymore but honestly, it was so she was constantly reminded of her late husband due to the many drifting thoughts she started having lately about Danse. But she's been trapped on the Prydwen for way too long. She hopped in her power armor, still not used to moving around in a mech, and took her leave.

It was the break of dawn when she left and she made it back to her long lost home of Sanctuary a little after two o'clock. As she walked over the bridge, she saw the settlers start moving from the sight of her with unease. It was Dogmeat however that bolted to her as soon as he saw her.

"Hey boy!" Kait happily piped. She saw Preston round the corner with his laser rifle out but still smiled. She made the power armor open up and she stepped out of it. When her actual self was made known, Preston immediately put away his weapon and yelled, "Kait!"

Kait gave some lovin' to Dogmeat and he excitedly hopped after her as she ran to her friends that all quickly began to gather around with the news of her return. It's been a few months- way too long- since she's been back and she had a serious case of homesickness. Preston was closest and she almost tackled him as she threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. He laughed and hugged her back just as tight then let her go so she could hug the others.

"We've missed you!" Nick said with a wide smile as she glomped him next. Kait closed her eyes and held Nick for a long time as she spoke, "And I've missed you all so much."

"We were worried about you Blue," Piper said as she got hugged next. "We haven't heard from you at all."

Kait slapped her hand to Deacon's and did a playful shoulder bump to him before she laughed and threw her arms around him. "I know! I'm so sorry! The Brotherhood has been keeping me so busy."

Nick looked at Kait's abandoned power armor before he looked back at her, "Is that what I think it's for?"

"It's for nothing else," Kait replied. "Ready to head into the Glowing Sea, Valentine?"

"For you?" Nick tipped his hat to her, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Before they left, she had spent some time with everyone in town. Sturges cooked up some Mirelurk steaks and passed them around as everyone sat together at a table they had built in the building across from Kait's old house. Kait told them stories of what she did in the Brotherhood while the others shared their latest stories in return. Deacon told the most and the more he told, the more outrageous and horribly fake they became, but they were entertaining and amusing all the same.

The sun started to set and Kait armored up with Nick by her side. They promised a safe return and left before dark. They stopped once on the way there for the night but set off first thing in the morning. The Glowing Sea was a sight to behold even though it was depressing and corrupted with insane amounts of radiation. For most of the journey, Nick and Kait had little resistance, not counting the bloatflies and sting wings. They neared a destroyed bridge and came across a Deathclaw and some Radscorpions battling and the two immediately bailed on the situation. Deathclaws were one story and Radscorpions were definitely another. They eventually stumbled upon a town that homed, miraculously, people that worshiped the Atom bombs. They spoke to a woman who pointed them in the right direction of Virgil and they thanked her before leaving their crazy little town.

"It's hard to comprehend anyone worshiping this hell hole." Nick stated as they trudged up a hill.

"I don't know..," Kait began, "It is the Commonwealth. I've stumbled upon plenty of crazy assholes."

"I suppose you're right." Nick said. "Just as long as we're not a part of them."

Kait smiled from under the helmet she wore, "I think I'd fit in. I talk to a dog and act like he understands what I'm saying, have a robot as a best friend, have been following a Nazi as a leader for the past few months, and believe that I can teleport to a place that technically doesn't exist."

Nick smiled, "You have a point. I think you might be insane. But hey, if I'll follow you to the end, then your robot best friend might be just as crazy as you are."

Kait turned her head in his direction and, even though he couldn't actually see her face, she assumed he could tell what playful expression she was sporting, "Oh, I was talking about Codsworth."

Nick laughed and cast his golden eyes at her, "My mistake then."

They approached from a hillside and saw how it sloped steeply downwards and knew that the cave entrance they were seeking was directly below them. Placed conveniently of course at the entry point was a sleeping beast that glowed with the sickness that plagued the air.

"Why now?" Kait complained. What she couldn't complain about however was their higher ground advantage. Knowing they would have to slay the Deathclaw before advancing, Nick and Kait readied themselves and opened fire.

Inside the cave were turrets and Protectrons but that was a breeze compared to the battle outside. The cave wasn't that deep and they soon stumbled across an obvious workshop and when the man they sought was in sight, Kait slowly removed her helmet before approaching cautiously.

"Virgil?"

Brian Virgil. A human man turned Super Mutant who still retained all of his intelligence. It was definitely an experience to have witnessed. Kait and Nick learned that they needed to defeat a Courser to get into the Institute and take his Courser Chip. With it, Kait can then learn how to teleport into the Institute and finally find her long lost son. She was so close and Kait nearly shook from the anticipation.

They were back in Sanctuary the next night. Kait left her power armor at the station and retired to her built house. She sat on her bed criss-cross and rubbed her thumb along Nate's wedding ring as she flipped through all of the pictures she had drawn since waking up from the cryo vault. Majority of them were pre-war memories and she finally stopped at one that made her smile weakly and tear up. It was a family portrait of her, Nate, and Shaun. She was holding Shaun and looked down at her sweet baby boy with her husband.

"Soon, Shaun. Mommy's coming." Kait whispered. She heard a knock at the door and told them to come in. It was Deacon.

"Hey Boss." He said, closing the door behind him. "How you holding up?"

"Fine." Kait replied as she gathered her pictures and moved them over to place them on the desk by her bed. She slid over on the bed as Deacon collapsed on it beside her, placing his hands behind his head and looking up at the ceiling.

"Soo… it's a nice night, isn't it?" Deacon awkwardly said.

Kait huffed a small laugh and interrogated, "What do you want Deacon?"

Deacon failed miserably at a serious expression he tried to feign. He grabbed her hand in his, "I'm here to confess my undying love for you."

Kait tossed his hand back at him and laughed, "I'm sure."

"Okay, no." Deacon quickly sat up but didn't look back at her. Kait couldn't help but note how real his wig looked. He was great with his disguises. Shaking that side thought away, she leaned over to see his profile better when he started speaking, "I need to ask you something but I really, _reaalllly_ hate to ask it."

Kait frowned but listened, "Ask."

Deacon sighed. "Ugh.. I know you just found out how to get to your son but… well.. the truth is, we- the Railroad- are having some trouble. There's another escaped synth we've been trying to hide but with the Institute on our ass and the Brotherhood barging into everything around here lately, it's been hard. We have a place that we know would work but it's heavily guarded by synths and we need help clearing it out." He faced her now, "Whattaya say?"

Kait smiled again, "Of course I'll help."

Deacon grinned and leaned back on his hands, trying to act all cool like, "I knew you'd say yes. There's just something about Ol' Deacon that you can't resist, huh?" he laughed as Kait almost shoved him off the bed. "Hey, hey! Don't get mad at me. My therapist told me that I shouldn't travel with you anymore. This is just a last resort. There's no one else we can turn to."

"And what's so off-putting about me?" Kait joked.

"You're scary," he glanced at her. "I was a pacifist before I met you. People have heard the stories about how you force me to slaughter entire species on a whim."

"Sorry," she began, matching his grin, "that I'm such a tyrant."

"You should be. I have nightmares you know. I cry in my sleep." Deacon said.

Kait shook her head, "Shut up…. When are we leaving?"

Deacon was finally serious, "Tonight if at all possible."

They were gone immediately and they made it deep into the city the same night. It was probably as dark as it could possibly be. It was rainy and the moon was covered by clouds. Deacon and Kait were waiting in an old, abandoned church for the synth and other Railroad member dropping him off. Kait sat down against the wall and had an old book on her legs that were pulled together in front of her with a piece of paper on that.

Danse removed his helmet and placed it on a workbench in the Prydwen before exiting his armor and putting it on one of the racks. He just got back with a squad from recovering some found power armor on an old crash site. He was sent to retrieve it immediately so no one in the Commonwealth outside of the Brotherhood could use it. He saw the empty rack where Kait's power armor used to be and knew that she was still gone. He was aware of her departure a few days ago but thought that maybe she'd be back. After all, if she didn't return soon, Maxson would send someone after her.

He took a shower and was changing into clean clothes in his room. When he opened the top drawer to his dresser, he saw the picture she had drawn him forever ago. It was of the window room that Maxson mainly resided in. He enjoyed the art piece but now when he saw it, he only could think of the Elder pulling Kait to him and forcing her into a kiss. Every single time the thought cursed his mind, he felt like he was going to be ill and tried; truly tried to make himself just see her as a recruit again. Why couldn't she just be like all the other initiates? Obedient, loyal, a follower. Why couldn't she blend in? He slowly picked the picture up and admired the details in the piece. He really loved how she did think for herself, how she wasn't afraid to speak her mind or to take charge. She made it clear over and over that she didn't agree with the Brotherhood but when she was needed, she saw them as just people needing help and her heart was kind for always being there. He knew that he was always hard on her but even when he'd push her away, she always came back and tried to make things work. When he needed help, she was there for him. And now he shoved her away for good. He was the one out of chances. Not her.

Danse thought too much about her. About her short and slightly messy black hair. Her light blue eyes and soft pale skin. Even the feel of her lips. He closed his eyes tight and didn't notice that he had closed his hand into a fist, crumpling the picture at the edge, when he thought about the Elder's lips on hers instead.

Danse opened his eyes and a wave of guilt hit him when he saw the crumpled paper and he quickly flattened it out as much as he could before placing it back down and getting fully dressed instead in what he basically always wore.

He left his room for a bite to eat but when he closed his door behind him, he saw that the Elder was about to enter his own room

Maxson saw Danse and quickly halted the Paladin, "Paladin. I thought you might have already turned in for the night so I was going to wait, but since you're here, I'll tell you now."

Danse listened and nodded his head for his idol to continue. Even though he wasn't pleased with Maxson, he would still die for the man.

"There's word of an abandoned subway that's overrun with synths. Take a team and clear it out. Maybe we can find something there that the Institute doesn't want us to see." Maxson informed.

Danse saluted to his idol, "Yes sir. Consider it done." When Maxson nodded, Danse went to walk away to continue with what he was doing but the Elder spoke again.

"Have you seen Kaitlyn lately?"

Danse had already had his back to Maxson when he started speaking but now he was stopped in his spot. He hesitated before answering, "No I haven't Elder."

Maxson turned his head away to nothing in particular, "I see. Well, she should be back any day now from wherever she's gone to." He smiled a little, "I hope I didn't scare her off. I know it was unprofessional but some things can't be helped. … Let me know if you see her Paladin. I'd like to see her again."

Danse turned his head towards Maxson but only because he now felt like he had to. "Yes Elder Maxson." With that, Maxson finally went into his room for the night. Danse exhaled heavily and closed his eyes again. And sometimes anger couldn't be helped.

From the window, she could see lights on the horizon and knew that they were from the Prydwen. She wondered what Danse had been up to; if he even thought about her. Kait shook her head and continued with her picture. Of course he hadn't. She still didn't know what she had done wrong but whatever it was, it had already happened and was over with. She shaded in one of the lenses on her artwork. She drew Danse at a low camera angle looking in the distance while holding his helmet in his hand but still wearing the rest of his power armor.

"He looks like a real Knight," Deacon commented as he stole a peek at the picture before taking a seat by her. He could tell that she felt uncomfortable by being caught but he brushed it off for her. "I didn't know you two had become friends."

Kait just added some last touches as she retorted, "And what makes you say that?"

Deacon nudged her lightly, "You only draw your friends."

Yeah, he had a point but she didn't know if Danse was actually a friend. Was he? No, no of course not. She only drew him because it was the only thing she had in her head and it just would not go away.

"Hey, can you draw me next?" Deacon said excitedly. "Make me look heroic too. I want to be standing on a pile of baddie synths," he held his hand out in front of him as it he was observing the world, "and I want some babes next to me. Make sure you don't forget the shades and add a sweet sun glare that highlights my handsome features. You can be in it too! You can be my sidekick!"

Kait laughed and rested the pencil down before leaning back against the wall, "I'm the sidekick?"

Deacon waved his hand at her as if saying that he wasn't finished, "Of course, this is my story! But don't worry, you can draw some babes with you too if you want honey. Just make sure they're hot. Oh, and make me hold a shotgun that's resting on my shoulder. Shotguns are manly, right?"

Kait stayed silent and just smiled at him. She watched him take off his sunglasses to clean them before covering his mysterious eyes back up. "You know I love you right?" she finally said.

Deacon knew she meant it in the friend way as he did, "I love you too Kait."

Kait's smile broadened and she took her recent drawing and placed it safely in the book before putting it in her bag. When she was done, they heard footsteps approaching. The package had arrived.

They briefly met before departing to the next area. They were to clear out an old abandoned subway station and Deacon and Kait hid the escaped synth somewhere temporarily safe nearby as they scouted the area. The sun was starting to rise but it was still dark and cloudy out.

"That's a lot of synths," Kait breathed lowly.

"Told you," Deacon spoke just as quietly.

The area outside had a patrol of synths surrounding the vicinity and they could only assume that the numbers outside couldn't hold a candle to the ones inside.

Kait pointed at the entrance, "Look." She handed her sniper to Deacon and he scoped into the area she directed him to. "See the mines? They set traps."

It took Deacon a second to see what she was talking about but when he did, he handed her rifle back to her. "Good eye. You ready-"

Deacon stopped talking when he and Kait spotted something at the same time. Hot, red lasers split the misty air and started a war with the synths in the area. Three Brotherhood of Steel members dressed in full suits of power armor entered the scene while Kait and Deacon stayed hidden on the sidelines.

"What are they doing here?" Kait asked as she kept her head low.

Deacon sounded annoyed, "I don't know but see? I told you that they're just barging into shit all the time, getting in the way."

They watched as the Brotherhood destroyed every synth with ease before then moving towards the entrance of the subway.

"Shit!" Deacon hit his fist to the dirt. "C'mon, we need to get out of here. We can't attack them- what are you doing?" he quickly asked.

Kait already raised her sniper, "They don't see the mines."

"And?"

"I don't want them getting hurt." Kait held her breath and closed an eye. Her fellow members were blocking her shot but she waited until one moved their leg, giving her just a second opening and she took the shot.

The three Brotherhood members abruptly stopped as the area in front of them exploded and they all covered their helmets from the flying debris. From where they stood, none of their suits sustained any major damage but if they weren't in their power armor then they definitely would be requiring a medic at the moment.

"Are we under attack?!" A Knight said as he quickly scanned the area.

"I don't know," the one leading the group, a Paladin, said but he raised his gun too. "Stay on guard!"

Kait turned to Deacon, "Tell F6-13 to stay put and that we'll be back for him."

"What are you going to do?" Deacon asked.

Kait regarded the Brotherhood, "We need to lure them away, right? Make sure you run with me."

Deacon smiled with excitement, "Yes Boss."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Ugghhh I just powered through this chapter and honestly, I had a lot of fun writing it. Thank everyone again for the follows and favs and reviews. It means a lot.

I think its night-night time now.

Enjoy please!

Chapter 10

Deacon ran off like instructed and Kait turned her attention back to the three Brotherhood members by the abandoned subway. They had spread out and began scouting to see who caused the explosion. Kait, keeping low to the ground, switched the bullets in her sniper to a weaker caliber that she knew wouldn't pierce the armor to their suits.

"Oh please don't kill me," she whispered and took aim, closing an eye again. She aimed for one of the suited member's shoulder plate and fired her first shot. Like she thought, the bullet bounced off but got their immediate attention.

Kait raised her head up as the barrels of their guns got pointed in her direction and she quickly scurried to her feet before sprinting off in the opposite direction.

"There!" she heard them yell from behind.

Kait met Deacon mid run and they continued on together, ducking their heads as lasers shot in their direction. Kait slid to her knees as she and Deacon turned the corner of a building. They lost the Brotherhood so she barely poked out from the edge and took her second shot, dinging the bullet off of one of their helmets.

She slammed her back to the brick building as the whole side of the building next to her lit up a bright red.

"Was this the best idea?" Deacon quickly asked.

Kait smiled wryly, "Probably not." They heard the stomping of the hoard charging at them before they got to their feet to run again. Kait was in front and leapt over a fallen barrel just as a laser hit it but pushed it forward. Her foot landed on the round surface and the object rolled but Deacon was there and grabbed her arm, making her recover quickly and the two ran down an alley. As they came to an opening again, they both agreed on a building to enter and busted the door open. Deacon was the one to look at the Brotherhood members turn the corner and he knew they saw him before he slammed the door shut due to their shots hitting immediately afterwards.

Deacon and Kait pushed a dresser in front of the door just to stall them a bit and they caught their breath.

"We're trapped now," Deacon panted.

Kait laughed as she took in air and shook her head, "No. They're huge, loud tanks. We're more nimble and as soon as they enter, it won't be hard to lose them in here and to sneak past them."

Deacon nodded to agree. "Okay Boss. What's next?"

"This is obviously a trap," the Paladin stated to the other two Knights as they stood outside the building.

One Knight nodded. "Yeah but did it seem like they were trying to get us away from the subway station?"

"They have to be more synths," the second Knight said. "Should we go after them?"

The first Knight answered, "We should stick to the mission at hand."

The Paladin seemed to have thought for a moment before inputting, "If these are just synths, or even mere raiders, we can take them without a problem. Their bullets just bounced off of us but who knows what kind of harm they could cause to the citizens of the Commonwealth. We should dispose of them and be done with it. Whoever they are, they are an enemy to the Brotherhood and therefore should be eliminated."

The second Knight began, "I agree. We can take them."

The first Knight nodded too, "Yeah, this won't take long."

Kait and Deacon weren't at the entrance anymore but they were close enough to hear the banging on the door. It was just two hits and the sound of the wood being splintered and destroyed was made clear. The building they were in was very dimly lit and the two hid from the Brotherhood's sight but could still spy on them from where they were at. The lights on their helmets clicked on to light their path.

Kait picked up a tin can from the ground and tossed it across the way into a room that was to the left of the soldiers. When it clanked to the wall, the Brotherhood members turned in the direction. Well, all besides one of them did. The one leading didn't seem fooled by the trick. When Kait and Deacon started to sneak away, the door they were about to open suddenly got shot up by lasers and they both fell back from the startlement.

"Boss, they didn't fall for it!" Deacon almost yelled.

"I see that!" Kait retorted. They heard the pursuit again. "We need to move!"

The two were standing and running again. They were able to turn corners and slide around things far easier and faster than the Brotherhood could but the three did well to stay on their trail. They really were trained well. Deacon and Kait busted through yet another door but slid to a sudden halt as they both almost fell to their deaths. They were in a huge open area of post-war made platforms that spiraled from the top where they were all the way to the very bottom. It consisted of many bridges connecting to each platform and half made rooms that consisted of couches and chairs in some and beds in others. The only thing odd was that there wasn't anyone else there besides the two and their Brotherhood pursuers.

"I guess we go down?" Deacon quickly asked.

Kait hastily nodded, "We go down."

They sprinted down the spiraled platform and made it nearly to the bottom with Deacon in the lead but he stopped cold in his tracks, making Kait run into him but neither one of them fell. Just two levels to the bottom was death staring them straight in the face. Okay… maybe it didn't see them.

The Deathclaw let out the most horrid, bone chilling roar they had ever heard in their lives.

Yeah, it definitely fucking saw them.

It wasn't until then did they notice that there was blood everywhere. Whoever lived here was long gone by now.

"Never listen to me again," Kait shakily said.

"I won't." Deacon said; both of their eyes locked to the Deathclaw's. Up top was the Brotherhood that hunted them down, and down below was the hunter ready for its next meal.

They finally moved when the Deathclaw did and they tried to run back up but it leapt high in the air and it's claw caught the edge of the platform they were on, making it shake loose and break, forcing the two to fall to the first floor but not the ground level.

Kait and Deacon were already sprinting again by the time the Deathclaw had rounded up to their level and gained on them. The gap leading from the first floor to the second was broken and Deacon leapt first, catching the edge and pulling himself up back to the second level.

Kait was about to follow but the Deathclaw was too close and she panicked, jumping out of the way just in time as the devil swung its bloody claws at her. She had jumped off of the first floor and was at the base now. All around her was disembodied limbs and mangled bodies that had been fed off of. Kait saw the wonderful blink from an elevator light and she took off towards it as the beast jumped down after her. She made it in the metal box and slammed her hand countless times to the up button and exhaled heavily when the door closed finally. She felt the elevator start rising but it was only a matter of seconds before the floor beneath her had thick, nightmarish claws pierce clean through it and the elevator jerked to a halt.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Kait yelled in despair. She looked up to the latch above her and quickly busted it open. She jumped to it and pulled herself up through the opening and saw the next floor in reach of her. The elevator beneath her shook violently and as she got the door open in time to climb through it.

From above, the Brotherhood members saw the Deathclaw savagely rip open the elevator shaft trying to get to the poor victim. Even if they were the enemy, the three soldiers knew that the beast needed to be stopped first and immediately took to the descent.

Kait was on the third floor and saw Deacon on the fourth. She motioned for him to keep going up and he did. Kait took to some backrooms and found some side stairs leading up to the next levels and ran up them. She didn't think the Deathclaw was after her anymore but she knew that it was still out there and it was going after them.

From out into the opening, the sound of lasers firing was heard, followed by another roar from the monster.

Kait was out in the opening again and saw as the Deathclaw just tanked through every hit and climbed levels with mere hops. It reached one of the Brotherhood Knights and knocked him clean across the room before looking up to Kait on the two floors above it. Here it comes. She assumed that the beast saw everyone in the room as either metal or meat and of course it'd choose the more savory option.

The soldiers were scattered around now and Deacon was nowhere in sight. Kait ran the spiral loop up to the next floors and found another side room. When she turned the corner, she tried to stop but slid and fell hard on her back as she was greeted by the ready barrel of a gun. The Brotherhood Paladin stood over her in silence before finally exclaiming.

"Kaitlyn?!"

Kait recognized the voice immediately. "Danse?!"

Danse lowered his gun, "What in the hell are you doing here?!"

Kait got to her feet and opened her mouth to speak but heard a yell as some more floorboards broke. When Kait snapped her head back, she saw Deacon suspending from a wire from the floor under hers that caught him by the ankle before he fell after the platform he was on collapsed. Deacon tried to shake loose but the wire was knotted tight and he instead pulled his pistol from his waist when he saw the Deathclaw bound after him now.

Kait's eyes widened. "No!" she screamed. She took her sniper in her hands and jumped down before Danse could stop her

"Kait, wait!" Danse yelled.

Kait ignored the Paladin and ran at the Deathclaw. "Over here you ugly fucker!" she yelled and shot her first shot at the Deathclaw. It didn't move its attention away from Deacon at first so she pulled back the bolt and took another shot.

Deacon fired rounds endlessly at the monster but it didn't even falter in movements. He instead now aimed up to the wire and shot it, breaking it and falling to his back on the ground. The Deathclaw sped up at him and he couldn't move fast enough. The Knight that wasn't knocked across the room appeared out of nowhere and rammed the beast to the side, derailing it from gutting the Railroad agent.

Kait was beyond grateful for the rescue and took the chance to load her stronger, previous bullets back into her sniper and opened fire on the Deathclaw with the three Brotherhood members. She only stopped when Deacon was under her and she dropped her gun to lean over the edge, her hand extended far out.

"Come on Deacon!"

Deacon looked up and snatched her hand before being helped up to the floor with her. When they were reunited, they both retrieved their weapons and took a knee next to each other as the five now rained hell down upon the horrible creature. With bullets from every angle, it was only a matter of seconds now before the beast dropped dead.

The room was silent now; peaceful. Kait didn't realize how much she was shaking until she put her weapon up. She looked at Deacon and he looked back. The two busted out in laughter and she hugged him as hard as she could. He was still alive and so was she.

"The shit you make me do!" Deacon squeezed her tightly.

"I'm so sorry," Kait started as she pulled away. "It'll never happen again."

"No!" He yelled in almost a pant; still taking in everything that just happened. "I love it!"

"Lower your weapons!" Danse yelled from above. Kait and Deacon looked up but the Paladin wasn't addressing them. Instead, he spoke to his squad. Oh yeah, they were being hunted.

Taking this as their chance, Kait and Deacon took to the upper levels away from the two Knights under them. When they almost got back to the top was when they stumbled across the Paladin.

Danse put up his weapon and took off his helmet to be more personal with the two.

"Oh no..," Deacon breathed when he recognized the Paladin. "It was him all along?!"

"What," Danse started with thick anger in his voice but Kait also sensed a slight bit of relief, concern and worry. Or she thought she did. "Do you think you're doing?! Are you crazy? Firing upon your own and leading yourself to near death?! What has gotten into you Knight?!"

"It was a backfired plan," Kait explained but she knew there was no way she'd be forgiven for this. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"This has got to be the most idiotic, selfish, and craziest thing you've ever done! Nothing you say can justify this!"

"Listen Danse," Deacon stepped in to her defense. "This is my fault. I dragged her into this unwillingly and she was just trying to help a friend out. You should ease up on her. After all, she did save you guys from blowing yourselves up."

"You-," Danse then realized what he was talking about with the explosions that occurred at the abandoned subway. "You disarmed them? I thought you maybe…. No! This is still unacceptable." He turned his attention fully back to her again, "What will Maxson think about this?!"

"Maxson," Kait started with an odd calm to her voice, "will probably promote you for saving me. This was just one big accident from the beginning. He might understand." She fell silent for a moment, "I'm sorry I was just a liability to you again."

The sad look Kait gave Danse made all his anger flush away and he was left without words. "N-no…, Kait, you…."

The other Knights were now approaching behind Kait and Deacon. The one that was tossed across the room was walking with a slight limp but was overall alright.

"Knight Kait? It was you this whole time?" one of the Knights questioned.

Danse looked at his squad and thought quickly. There was no way Kait would ever be safe from the Brotherhood if they found out she had fired at her own. "No, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She and her friend caught sight of some synths running into this building and chased after them. When we saw them in here, we didn't realize that it was just some of our own. The synths had already made it farther in here and the Deathclaw got to them before any of us."

Kait was shocked that he suddenly defended her. Her eyes met Deacon's and even though she couldn't actually see them, the rest of his face said all the same as hers did.

"Oh…," the other Knight said. It seemed like they were reluctant to believe Danse but that was erased quickly as they followed their words with genuine ones, "We're sorry to have shot at you. It's a blessing that we didn't actually hit you."

Kait looked at them and gave them a smile, "It's no problem. I vote that we all move on from this. I mean… we just took on a Deathclaw and all made it out in one piece. I say we cheer to that!"

"Yeah!" Deacon first yelled. Kait awkwardly chuckled before she followed in his cheer then the Knights did as well. Danse just stood there silently. He wanted to say so much to her but it just wasn't the right time and not the right place.

Kait and Deacon departed before Danse had the chance to stop them. The Brotherhood inevitably was going to clear out the subway station and the two retrieved F6-13 and took him away to a shelter for the rest of the day while the Brotherhood cleaned out the spot they were going to. The two were exhausted and if someone else was going to do their jobs for them, then why not, right?

They moved again at nightfall when the three Brotherhood members were long gone and they got the synth to safety and passed him on to other Railroad supporters that would take it from there. Instead of heading back to Sanctuary, they retired to the old church where the Railroad base was located due to it being much closer. There, Deacon exploded with juicy details of the battle they had underwent and Kait, sitting off in the back, grinned happily to every part that he stretched the truth on and felt content for the first time in a while.

They had one hell of a day.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Kait only returned to the Prydwen because she felt like she had to. That being said, she still gave herself a few weeks before she did. After she and Deacon returned to Sanctuary and told the others about their awesome adventure, Kait bailed on Deacon, or so what the Railroad agent said she did, for her beloved Nick. There, the two found many others willing to join them: an old Gunner named MacCready who hailed from a place called Little Lamplight, the mayor of the town MacCready was recruited in, John Hancock, a woman with the same name as Kait but instead spelled with a C at a Fight Club for raiders, and then a Mrs. Handy named Curie who had a pleasant accent. It didn't take long for Kait to get to know Curie to a point where the robot asked her to help her become human- or synthetic. Kait had to convince Glory, another Railroad agent, to let them have a female synth whose memory was already wiped for Curie to then inhabit but once done, the procedure was a great success and the help that Curie provided for the others as a medic was increased tenfold.

When Kait first entered the Prydwen again, it was weird. Those she ran into smiled at her presence and she awkwardly returned them even though she didn't know why. She made a pit-stop in Quinlan's office to drop off all the technical documents she had gathered and got rewarded with a great amount of caps for it.

"Leave my cat alone, Knight!" Quinlan ordered and Kait laughed at his tone. She knew that he was serious but not at the same time but she nuzzled the cat's head with her own before she placed his pet back down on the desk that it always sat on. Kait apologized with a smile before she turned to leave.

She started making her way to the kitchen/ lounge area where several initiates were seated at. When she entered, the three kids that she helped at shooting practice suddenly ran up to her and surrounded her.

"Knight Kait!" The girl said. "Did you really take on a Deathclaw without power armor?"

"What?" Kait was taken off-guard by her sudden question. It took only a second for her to understand what the young girl was talking about. It seemed as though one of the Knights had ran his mouth about the incident that occurred a few weeks ago just as Deacon did. She smiled down at the girl, "That I did."

"That's so cool!" one of the boys said- the one she helped during the shooting practice. "I want to be just like you and take one on too!"

Kait let out a burst of uneasy laughter, "Noo, no you don't! And it was terrifying, not cool."

"Pfft," They all huffed. The third child looked past her and something in his eyes lit up as he waved his hand, "You were there Paladin Danse! How cool was it? How cool was Kait?"

Kait stopped smiling and slowly looked behind her. Danse was only a few feet away and, by the way he looked at her, he was surprised to see her.

"W-well," Danse recovered and looked at the kids. He already knew what they were talking about because the three never stopped talking about it. They talked about Kait like she was a superhero. "What the Knight did wasn't the best approach but she handled the situation well and faced it with what she had, even if it was extremely reckless and careless."

"Listen to me," Kait started up after the Paladin, putting on a half smile as she spoke to the kids, "It's nothing to look up to. I could have gotten myself killed or those I care about."

Danse found himself staring at Kait with deep respect as the kids before her stopped laughing and moving excitingly while they listened to her with grave seriousness. She calmly explained to them to never engage in anything that they couldn't handle due to the consequences that could follow. She informed them on how loyalty was important in the world they lived in and, if there was none present just a few weeks ago, then none of the players present would have made it out of there alive.

"You can have fun in the Commonwealth," Kait began to end her lecture, "But never gamble the lives of others based on a whim. Always keep those you care about close to you. One day…, you might lose them." Memories flashed of Deacon suspended in front of the Deathclaw like a treat ready to be devoured, "In my case.. I almost did."

The children stood at attention and respectfully saluted to her, "Yes ma'am!"

"Hey!" Another Knight entered the area and saw the squires standing around Kait. "Leave the Knight alone and return to your duties."

The kids now looked a little bummed but they immediately listened. "Yes sir!"

As the kids ran off, the one Kait helped with shooting stayed behind for a moment. "Hey Kait.. I've gotten better with my aim. Would you come watch me sometime?"

Kait smiled happily. "I'd love to."

The kid probably couldn't be any happier and ran off after his brother and sister after her answer.

"You're pretty good with kids." Danse said from behind.

Kait's smile dropped and she almost looked back at him but stopped half way, "Thank you…" His words only filled her mind with thoughts of her own son and it hurt like hell to think about.

"Sorry about that," the Knight that dismissed the squires approached Kait. "They've been waiting for your return ever since they heard the story."

Kait laughed slightly, "It wasn't a bother. It was nice seeing them again."

The Knight nodded, "Alright. But hey, are you going to stick around for some combat training tonight?"

Combat training? Kait had never had any training on hand-to-hand, instead, she just attacked until she started to do something. "Yeah, sure."

"First," Danse spoke up again and stepped more into the conversation but only spoke to Kait, "You need to report to Elder Maxson. He's been waiting for your arrival as well."

The look Kait gave Danse was that of worry and annoyance, "Why?"

The other Knight dismissed himself as Danse replied, "You've been gone for almost a month. All he wants is to talk."

Kait exhaled a puff of air to mock his words, "Yeah. _Talk_. I'm sure."

Danse furrowed his brows, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Kait opened her mouth to yell but stopped. They were surrounded by other initiates but luckily, none of them seemed to have been paying them any attention. Instead, she kept her voice at a reasonable level, "What do you think?"

"I think," Danse was using his big and bad authority voice again, "that you're overreacting and you need to stop behaving like a child on the matter. You are a Knight in the Brotherhood of Steel. Act like one."

Kait almost flinched at his words. The two locked eyes and Danse could tell that she wanted to hurt him but there was still a wave of hurt in them. "Whatever," Kait said as she shook her head and left him standing there.

Kait climbed the ladder and saw Maxson standing in his room but with his back to her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath; telling herself that she could handle the situation. She made herself walk into the entryway to the room but she stopped there. She refused to step any further in and any closer to the Elder.

"Elder Maxson?" Kait broke the silence.

The Elder quickly turned around, obviously not expecting her. "Kait! I didn't know you had returned! When did you?"

Kait shrugged a little, trying hard to make it not seem painfully obvious that she didn't want to be there. "Maybe twenty minutes ago. That's it."

"I see," Maxson said with a smile and stepped closer to her. She couldn't take a step back or else she'd leave the room and that probably wouldn't have been best at the moment. "I'm glad to see that you're still in one piece. I've missed you."

 _I'm sure you have_ , Kait told herself.

"How," he started, "has your search for the Institute fared?"

Kait indicated that it was alright when she spoke, "I haven't been able to locate it exactly yet but I know how to get in now." Knowing that he was going to ask how, she continued, "I need to find an Institute courser. When I destroy it and recover it's chip then it should be able to teleport me in."

"Teleportation?" Maxson was surprised. "The technology that the Institute possesses is phenomenal. Make sure you report back to me if you manage to get ahold of one of these chips."

Kait nodded, "Yes sir." Then after she did that, they'd help her get in and then she would leave with her son for good. When she was done, she never wanted to set foot on the Prydwen again or even be called a part of the Brotherhood of Steel anymore. She'd settle down somewhere. Maybe Diamond City. She'd still see all her friends and they would all meet Shaun and be there for her and help defend them if anyone ever tried to take her son away from her again. She promised that no one would ever lay a hand on her son when she got him back. She'd kill anyone who did.

Maxson was staring into her eyes and it seemed as though he knew everything that ran through her head involving the Brotherhood part. When Kait turned to leave, he stopped her.

"I expect you to help us when needed," Maxson said without a hint of humor or care in his voice. When Kait looked into his eyes, a chill ran down her spine. His dark, cold eyes said everything he didn't. If she abandoned the Brotherhood then she'd be hunted down like a dog. She was too far in and there was no way she'd get out now.

"Y-yes sir," she didn't mean for her voice to break and she left his presence finally.

His eyes never left her after that. The sun was setting and most of the Brotherhood was in the airport again. Everyone had a partner as they honed there hand-to-hand combat skills. Kait had paired up with another Knight and she was trying to hold her own against the other female but Kait kept falling short.

"Never had to fight like this, huh?" The other female laughed. "It's alright. It took me a while to get a hang of it too."

Kait nodded slowly, "Thanks. … And no I haven't. Well, there was one time I fought with Paladin Danse but I didn't stand a chance."

The Knight laughed again, "You fought with the Paladin? Well it's no wonder you didn't get any practice. Did you even get a hit in?"

"No," Kait admitted. She deflected the Knight's next attack out of the way but then caught a glimpse of the Prydwen overhead and thought of Maxson and his threat again. Kait missed the Knight's counter attack and was dropped to her knees quickly.

The Knight frowned as she held Kait down and let go of her, "You seem distracted."

She was. "I'm sorry," Kait apologized. She rose to her feet and turned to the Knight, "I'm not myself right now. You should find a new partner that could actually help you more."

The Knight seemed genuinely concerned but did press what was bothering Kait, "Are you sure?" When Kait nodded, the Knight returned it before taking her leave.

It wasn't long after when the training was called to an end. In a matter of minutes, the airport started to clear out and Kait took the time to take a deep breath and to think to herself.

"What should I do Nate?" Kait whispered and placed her hand to her neck to feel her husband's wedding ring but her body ran cold when she did. Where was the necklace? Where was the ring?

Kait looked down at her chest and saw that the necklace wasn't on anymore and she started to panic. She thought of when she could have lost it and knew that it wasn't during the Deathclaw incident; she remembered messing with it afterwards.

"Oh no, no, no no!" Kait quickly rushed back into the open area where the training had occurred. The sun was already gone and she only had the airport lights and her pip boy to guide her.

Danse had been down there too with the others during the practice and was up top on a building about to board a Vertibird but stopped when he noticed a green light from down below. He told the others that he'd board another flight in a little before departing back down to the ground level of the airport. When he exited the building to get to where Kait was, she was scrambling about all around the area in search of something.

Danse, feeling too obligated to ask her what was wrong, started to walk to her. During one of his steps, he felt something roll under his boot and looked down. There, he saw several tiny, metal beads that belonged to a holotag necklace but there by his foot was a simple, silver ring.

He knew what it was as soon as he picked it up and his chest tightened when the light in the airport was enough for him to be able to read the engraving within the ring: ' _My heart is yours_ '.

Kait stood up straight now and rubbed her eyes roughly; she couldn't see good if she never stopped crying. She jerked around when she felt someone lightly touch her shoulder.

Danse didn't need to say anything as he held his hand out to her with the ring in his palm. When Kait saw it, her eyes went wide and she snatched it in a heartbeat. Before Danse could speak, he was taken by surprise when he was suddenly pulled down to her by her throwing her arms around his neck regardless of him being about a solid head and a half taller than her.

"Thank you!" Kait clutched onto him tightly as she cried tears of joy now. She felt a warm feeling flow through her body when she felt his arms actually slide around her to hug back.

Danse didn't mean to smile but couldn't help it. He could hear and feel how happy she was and knowing that he was the cause of it made him feel proud, "It was no problem."

Kait, with Nate's ring on her right thumb, leaned back and placed her hands on each side of his face, "You don't know how much this means to me Danse."

Danse could feel his cheeks start to turn hot and he pulled himself away from her, forcing the moment to end. He went to walk away from her but she caught his arm before he could leave.

"Can we talk?" she asked with almost a plea in her voice.

The two were sitting on the ground near the radiation ridden sea but it was still beautiful as the moonlight reflected off of it. Kait was turning Nate's ring in her hands as she looked at it. She asked to talk but hadn't said a word yet since they sat down.

"What," Danse started the conversation, "did you want to talk about?"

Kait looked deathly serious and didn't look at him when she did finally open her mouth, "Would you kill me if you were ordered to?"

Danse was shocked by her question. Where had that come from? His words expressed his startlement, "Why would you ask that?"

Kait tilted her head a little and ran her thumb over the band, "I'm just curious. But if your leader, Maxson, ordered you to hunt me down and kill me, would you?"

Danse shook his head but at the question, not to answer it, "It would depend on what you did."

"If I ran." Kait stated immediately.

Danse fell silent as he looked over at her. He could see the sadness in her features and knew she meant when she got her returned favor. He knew just as well as she did that Maxson was not just going to let her leave. "Abandonment is considered to be betrayal. You know a lot about us and how we operate. If you left, you'd be an enemy of the Brotherhood and we can't have someone like that out there in the Commonwealth against us." When he saw her nod, he then added, "But no. I don't think I could make myself do it."

Kait finally looked over at him and his eyes were actually kind and even beautiful as the light from the moon hit them. She smiled to him, "I couldn't either."

Danse broke their eye contact as he looked ahead of him and seemed to hesitate with his next words, "You just…. I couldn't do it. I care too much about…" he trailed off as he started to struggle. Telling his feelings was not a strong suit on the Paladin.

She watched him awkwardly scratch at his stubble and she was surprised by his words. She took that time to her advantage as she questioned, "Why have you pushed me away so much? What's wrong?"

"I…," yeah, he was definitely malfunctioning. Danse sighed loudly and finally turned to her, "I'll just end up getting you killed if you stay with me! I watched you almost die twice and I don't think I could do it a third time!"

Kait was speechless. She wasn't turning her husband's rind in her hand anymore and stared at the Paladin with surprise. She wasn't expecting that kind of answer.

"I'm so hard on you because I'm hoping that it'll make you stronger." His voice was firm, "My mentor, my friend, never explained to me why he was so hard on me but I'm still here because of it. I've watched countless friends fall before my eyes and I can't have you get added to that list. I just want to protect you."

Kait slowly looked ahead of her and placed both hands on the ground to each side of her as she thought to herself; Nate's ring was back on her thumb. "How…," she started lowly, "do you expect to protect me if you're always pushing me away?" She looked over at him, "Do you not realize that I'm only here still because of you being there? The two times I almost died was because I _left_ you. Remember? I don't know who put this guilt trip in your head but with you staying by me is when you can keep me safe."

Danse couldn't find the words to speak. When he tried, all he managed to get out was, "I'm sorry."

Kait smiled but it was almost a sad one. She leaned over and grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Can we move on from this now? I just want the old Danse back. Not this asshole one that you've been acting like lately."

Danse almost laughed but nodded his head instead. "Yeah, we can."

"Great!" Kait happily sighed as she slid over to be right next to him. "Now," she didn't notice how much he had turned red with embarrassment and unease by her actions. "I need to hunt down a Courser. Do you think you could accompany me?"

Danse smiled and looked back out to the sea, "Of course. If I don't, then you'll do something reckless again." His heart picked up when she leaned against him to relax. She was looking off in the opposite direction from him and started messing with her husband's ring again. The moment between them for the rest of the night was silent as no words were spoken between them. Danse thought about how he'd always try to be there for her even if she got sick of his company. Kait was overflowing with the sick feeling of guilt as she looked at Nate's wedding ring. She was best friends with other males and she could be close to them and touch them just fine without feeling like she was betraying anyone but with Danse, it was different and she didn't know why. She leaned against him to try to force herself to make it a casual relationship like with Deacon and Nick but it just felt different from them and that fact drove her insane. She loved her husband and always would but her mind wouldn't stop drifting off and she managed a small smile in the night. That was the first time she and Danse had ever hugged and she really enjoyed it.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Your orders are to recover this Courser Chip and bring it back to us," Maxson stood with his back to the window, "Is that understood Paladin?"

"Yes Elder Maxson." Danse saluted. "I'll see to it that this mission is a success."

"Good." Maxson said. "Make sure that Kait doesn't leave with it. We can't have her running off with the only thing that could get us into the Institute."

Danse nodded but questioned carefully, "But this is to fulfill the favor we owe her, right sir?"

Maxson was too quiet for Danse to like for a few moments before responding. "Yes, but it's for the Brotherhood of Steel as well. Our mission is most important. … You're not doubting my authority, are you Danse?"

"I would never." Danse bowed his head. "Just speaking out of curiosity. I'll make sure the chip makes it here safely."

When Danse made it down into the airport, Kait was already geared up and ready but she didn't bring her power armor. She knew Danse preferred her to travel in it like he did but he also knew that she didn't like wearing it, so they didn't argue about it.

Kait had her back to him when he came marching up and she was standing at the shooting range with the boy from the other day, fulfilling her promise to him. She gently played with Nate's wedding ring around her neck as she found a sturdier replacement as a chain for it.

"You're getting really good," Kait complimented after the boy got done hitting every target where he said he would. "You might even be better than me."

The boy looked up at her with an amused face, "Whatever! You're just saying that."

Kait almost laughed. "I am. But I'm serious when I say that you're definitely better. Just keep practicing and one day you probably will be better than me."

"And then be able to take on a Deathclaw without power armor?" he asked with a wide smile.

Kait nodded, "Yep. But just make sure you're somewhere far away from the beast, and up high enough to stay out of its reach and you'll be good."

"Don't put those thoughts in the squire's head." Danse said from behind.

Kait looked back but still held the smile on her face. "I'm sorry Paladin. I'm just messing around. But are you ready to go?"

"You two going to take on more bad guys?" The boy asked as he looked up at the two.

"Yes sir," Kait replied. "Bad guys with guns that can teleport."

"Whoa…" the squire was amazed.

Kait chuckled lightly and she and Danse started leaving. "I'll see you later."

The boy saluted to them, "Stay safe Knight Kait and Paladin Danse! Ad Victoriam!"

Kait led them to where Virgil told her she would possibly find a Courser. They made it to the CIT Ruins and roamed around the area a bit until a signal finally popped up on her pip boy.

"Here we go…," Kait said nervously as she tuned into it. She couldn't believe that she was this close. Soon after tracking the signal, they came across several enemies; all Gunners, surrounding the area.

"Seems like," Danse began before they were spotted, "we're not the only ones hunting down a Courser."

"I guess not," Kait responded. The two took out their weapons and she stayed back to snipe. "But we're getting the Courser, not anyone else." She glanced at Danse for a moment before taking aim, "You ready Paladin?"

Danse nodded and marched ahead while Kait provided him with cover fire as the fight began. The Gunners didn't stand a chance and the two continued on until Kait's pip boy led them to a building known as Greenetech Genetics.

"The Courser's on the third floor!" A Gunner on the intercom announced to the others in the building as the two entered.

"Looks like we're going up," Kait commented as they rushed in. If they thought that there were a lot of Gunners outside then they were mistaken as soon as they saw the numbers on the inside. The Gunners in the building put up a much fiercer fight and every time the two would move up one floor, the Courser would move up two.

They were on the fourth floor when they got pinned down. "Do they ever stop coming?!" Kait yelled in annoyance as she poked from around the corner to take a shot. She quickly moved back as bullets hit the floor and the wall by her.

"They must want the Courser as much as we do," Danse said. He exited through the doorway, guns blazing, and began crossing the catwalk. Kait noticed Gunners on the catwalks above them and stayed hidden in the safety of the room she was in but shot through the doorway to clear out the Gunners up top while Danse finished up with the ones on their current level. When done, he called for her to catch up and Kait ran across the bridge to get to the other side with the Paladin.

The next floor was when the Gunners started pulling out the turrets. They reached a stairwell with a MK IV turret standing ready for them. When they destroyed that, Danse watched as Kait sprinted past him and to the next level. By the time he caught up with her, he could hear the caliber rounds pounding into the wall that she was behind while she sat against it with an impatient look.

"Relax Knight." Danse said to her before he stole a look around the corner. There were three, maybe four turrets spread around along the opposite side of the building along with several Gunners posted just waiting for them to run out. They were pinned down.

"This is bullshit Danse!" Kait yelled. "We're getting nowhere! Everytime we take a step closer, these God damn Gunners place more defenses and the Courser keeps getting farther and farther away!"

Danse looked over at her in silence. He could tell that she was about to do something careless and he refused to let her get that far. He put his gun away and removed his helmet before kneeling down next to her as much as his power armor would let him.

"Kait," Danse began calmly. "Look at me." When she didn't, he put his cold, metal hand on her face and gently turned her head to face him. "Now is not the time to get reckless. We're this close to getting the Courser and you are this much closer to saving your friend. Just focus on that and listen to me. I will make sure that we get the Courser, do you understand me?"

Kait took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, okay. I trust you Danse." He gave her a reassuring smile and put the helmet back on and rose to stand, which she followed.

"Look," Kait said as she pointed outside but to where the turrets couldn't see them. "See the wires? I bet you there's a terminal over there and if I can get to it, I can deactivate the turrets."

"I see it," Danse said as he carefully examined what they were up against as much as he could without exposing himself. "But we can't get there without surely taking some hits along the way."

"I can." Kait said from behind him. When he faced her, he could tell that she was nervous to say what she did next. She pointed to the floor above them, "There."

Danse looked up and saw a small break in the floor slim enough for a body to slide through but Danse, even without his power armor was way too bulky to fit through it, but Kait could. He looked back down at her quickly. "Not going to happen."

Kait almost pouted even though she already knew that he was going to say that. "Okay, then what's your idea?"

Danse hesitated. He didn't have one other than just be patient and slowly pick everyone off one by one while the Courser got away. He eased up a little, "I won't be able to get to you in time if something happens."

"I'll sneak by them." Kait promised, "And I won't attack to blow my cover unless they attack first."

"That's not reassuring." Danse said.

The intercom started up again, "The Courser's on the top floor! Stop him!"

Danse saw Kait nearly make herself sprint out to the catwalk with impatience. He needed to decide then what they were going to do.

"You better not get yourself killed," Danse said unwillingly. Kait smiled and nodded, "I'll try not to."

Danse lifted her up and she barely poked her head in through the broken floor to see if it was clear. When it was, she motioned for him to raise her up more so she could pull herself up through the hole on her own. She gave Danse a thumbs up before she disappeared from his sight.

She must have moved quickly because the turrets were deactivated in no time and the Gunners immediately noticed. When Danse saw that they stopped watching the doorway he was in, he then stepped out and opened fire on the unsuspecting Gunners. During their fight, Danse noticed that some of the Gunners dropped dead out of nowhere as they were being shot at from the side. He knew it could only be Kait.

Danse was halfway across the bridge now by the time the Gunners caught on to Kait being somewhere up there with them. Danse saw them turn away from him and run out of sight which then caused his heart to drop.

"Dammit Kait!" Danse panicked and ran into the next area. He cleared the stairs and all enemies in sight. He found a room with several Gunners within and took them all out in a matter of minutes but not without taking a lot of hits himself. He could see that his left arm was almost out of durability as well as the leg. His torso was about at half life but the rest was still in good condition.

He saw no signs of her in the room so he crossed to the next one that had the terminal in it. "Kait?" he called.

Across the room, a cabinet door slowly creeped open and Kait was hiding within. She gave him a wry smile before crawling out. "I'm alright. Are you?"

Danse let out a relieved sigh at the sight of her and smiled behind the helmet. "I'm fine."

They made it almost to the top floor and at that point, there weren't that many Gunners left. They were at their last stairwell before the final room when a Gunner Heavy turned the corner with a rocket launcher ready to greet them with.

"Move!" Danse ordered as the Gunner fired the weapon. The two ran far enough away by the time the explosion hit where they just were and Kait hit the wall from the blast but recovered and slid down in the corner and cowered as she covered her head. Danse was with her and quickly covered her with his body as debris consisting of stone and bricks hit the back of his power armor.

When the destruction had died down, Kait slowly lowered her hands and tilted her head up. Danse was still over her but he didn't move.

"D-Danse?" she lowly asked.

"I got hit," he finally said.

Kait's eyes widened. "What? Where?!" She raised up and he leaned back to rest on one knee. As she stood up fully, she looked over him and saw that the stairwell had been caved in but that was a problem that she would tackle in a moment. Danse was her priority first. She moved around him and saw the back of his left arm right away. The explosion must have blown off some of the armor that had reached its end anyways. The back of his arm just below the shoulder of was split open, burnt and bleeding through his clothes and blood lightly dripped on his power armor.

"Get out." Kait ordered. Obeying right away, Danse opened the armor and stepped out but kept his back to her so she could look at the damage. "You can still move your arm, right?"

Danse nodded and she removed a stimpack from her inventory before placing it right above the wound. When she looked at it closely, it wasn't that long, but the gash was deep. Overall, he was alright but would just need stitches. He didn't complain but she was sure it was hurting like a bitch, even for a tough and mostly emotionless man such as Danse.

"We'll bandage it as best as we can right now." Kait said as she dug through her bag. "I'm not a medic; never was but I can try to do something." She made him sit on the floor due to their height differences so she could get to his wound better. She watched as his facial features twitched when she rolled his sleeve up carefully to expose his whole arm to wrap it directly.

Danse looked over at Kait with his eyes and watched as she took care of his arm with the utmost care. She caught him looking and turned her attention to him, "What?"

She was maybe a foot away and that was it. "Thank you," Danse said.

Kait shook his words off and finished binding his wound. "We got to take care of our own, right? You'd do the same." She stood back, "There."

Danse stood up now to his towering level and lowered his sleeve. Next, they regarded the area they needed to go and Kait walked up to the blocked area.

"How are we supposed to get past this?!" she tried to move some of the rubble but it was stuck tight. She did notice, however, how there was another gap now that just needed to be cleared out a bit for them to get through. "Here. We can probably squeeze through here like I did before. If we loosen it up, you should be able to get through it too."

"Worth a try," Danse acknowledged as he reentered his power armor. She took a step back as he took her spot. He grabbed some of the blocking debris and started to pull. Finally, some of it shook loose and he pulled a chunk out and then another. He let Kait get down and look at the cleared path and she nodded. "It should be good."

"I'll go first," Danse stated. There was no way that the armor was going to fit through and they feared that if he pulled anymore rubble out then the whole thing would collapse again. He exited one more time but pulled his fusion core out of the armor so no one could take it if they stumbled across it. Danse crouched low and began moving through the gap and pushed on even when it started to get tight.

Kait lowered herself next and stayed right behind him. She was much smaller than him and moved through it with ease but remained patient for him as he took the lead. Finally, he emerged on the other side and immediately raised his rifle. The Gunner that fired at them didn't die from the explosion so he was still out there somewhere. When Kait made it through next, they snuck up the stairs and into the next area.

They reached the final room and could hear voices from around a corner.

"What's the code?" an emotionless man said.

"I told you, I don't-" a gunshot quieted the man who tried to speak. There were a couple light footsteps and then the first voice spoke again. "What's the code?"

A new voice sounded, "We already told you! We don't fucking know!"

"Disappointing."

Kait was in front of Danse as she leaned against the wall and listened. There wasn't anymore sound in the room and Kait very slowly looked around the corner. As if waiting for her, an average height man with slick black hair and a long black cloak looked straight at her.

"You. Come here," the man said to Kait.

Kait got a chilling jolt through her body when the man looked at her but she obeyed; motioning for Danse to stay quiet and to remain put first. He obviously wanted to yell at Kait for that decision.

"Do you know the code?" he said to her.

Kait looked as there were three Gunners: one dead one and two live ones. The live ones were on their knees. She noted too how there was a rocket launcher across the room so one of the men in front of her was the culprit earlier. She looked at the man in black and could only assume that he was the Courser.

"I can," Kait tried to casually answer. "If it's a terminal, I can hack it. If it's a locked door, I can pick it."

The Courser suddenly aimed a laser pistol at her. "Open it."

Kait held her hands up quickly. "Whoa, whoa. I'm on your side! Have you not noticed that there aren't any Gunners coming? Who do you think took care of them?"

The Courser seemed unamused. Then again, he didn't seem anything other than a cold and heartless killing machine. "I don't recall you being assigned to this mission as well. You're lying."

Kait shrugged half-heartedly. "Well I tried." Before the Courser could react, Kait bolted back around the corner where Danse was as the fight started.

"When this is over," Danse quickly put his input in, "we're talking about what you just did."

Kait pulled out her revolver and nodded. "That's fine." She aimed around the corner but widened her eyes when she saw that the Courser wasn't there anymore. "Where'd he go?!"

Danse now saw the light bend in an unnatural way and he immediately fired. Kait then realized that the Courser was invisible and shot with Danse. They both got up and moved as the Courser fired back relentlessly.

Danse took cover as close as he could to the synth as Kait stood back and fired from a distance. She targeted the Courser's firing arm when he became visible again and with a final shot, the synth's hand got blown off. Not slowing it down however, the Courser took every shot as it charged at Danse. The Paladin was forced to jump out of the way as the Courser slammed it's attached fist down with great force at where he was.

Kait had to reload and quickly popped open the cylinder to start replacing the rounds. She looked up as the Courser was on her now. Before she reacted, the Courser had her by the throat and lifted her off the ground and ignored every shot it was taking to the back. Kait got two bullets in before she tried to raise her firearm at the synth but it then slammed her against the wall, knocking the air from her. When he dropped her, he stole the revolver from her hand and had it aimed at her head in no time.

An unbearable ringing sounded as everything turned fuzzy for Kait. Danse had tackled the Courser out of the way just as he fired. Kait had slapped her hand over her ear as blood started pouring from it. She couldn't move though; she tried to stand but just ended up falling back down to sit against the wall. Her whole head wouldn't stop spinning.

Danse was fighting with the synth hand-to-hand and punched the Courser in the face but it barely phased the machine. The synth evaluated Danse during their fight and grabbed ahold of his injured arm and dug its fingers into his wound, forcing the Paladin to release a cry of pain. Even with only one hand, the Courser was a bitch to fight. Danse managed to trip the Courser's legs out from under him and knock him on the floor. The Paladin was on the synth immediately and grabbed ahold of his head before he started slamming it to the hard floor.

The Courser grabbed ahold of Danse's throat and squeezed it with an inhuman strength. Danse's head started become light but he slammed the synths head violently to the ground until blue sparks started to flash. Finally, the Courser's grip ceased to tighten as its head caved it, showing the mechanical work inside that would normally be splattered brains.

Danse ripped the Courser's hand away from his throat and weakly stood up. He immediately turned around and returned to Kait, who was still against the wall. He knelt in front of her and gently grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands away from her head.

"Kait," he lowly spoke, "can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Kait looked at him and still looked as if she didn't know what had happened. Her right palm was bloody as the source of the red substance was smeared across her ear and cheek. The ringing was still present but it was faint now. "I-I think so… Is it dead?"

Danse nodded, "Yes." When the two stood, they saw the two remaining Gunners staring at them in horror. None of them dared to attack them after the fight they had witnessed.

Kait and Danse retrieved the Courser Chip, let the Gunners go and for the heck of it, Kait opened the door that the Courser was attempting to get into and what was on the other side was a runaway female synth. Danse, probably because he was tired of fighting, didn't argue with Kait when they decided to let her go. They started leaving the building the way they came from and when Danse went to retrieve his power armor, he didn't even realize that the fusion core was bled dry and he couldn't bring it back.

They made it outside and it was too bright for them to appreciate. They walked for about half an hour without really talking. At one point, Kait started walking faster than the Paladin without even speeding up her pace. Concerned, Kait looked back at Danse and saw that he was far too pale to be okay and he looked like he was going to be sick. When Kait parted her lips to speak, he suddenly collapsed out of nowhere on the broken road they traveled on.

"Danse?!" Kait almost screamed. She was by him in a heartbeat and tried to shake him awake. She rolled him over on his back and could see how dark his skin was flushed around his eyes and when she felt his forehead, his body temperature was too hot to be normal.

"Danse!" Kait yelled and looked around frantically. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. She looked back down at him, "Oh god, Danse, please wake up!"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

It was the next day and the sun had rose up over Sanctuary. Kait was helping Preston in the garden they had planted behind one of the houses. The day before, luck had struck her when she saw a passing caravan and they had helped her transport Danse to Sanctuary with her. She gave the caravan a great deal of items consisting of ammo, guns and medical supplies to express her gratitude.

Kait wiped the sweat off of her forehead. She hadn't smiled since she returned to her home regardless of all her friends being with her. She assumed that Deacon was going insane due to even him being unable to get a laugh from her. Curie was treating Danse in one of the houses they had constructed and she had informed Kait that he was fine. He just exerted too much energy and adrenaline to where his body couldn't take it anymore and it gave in.

Curie had the cleanest rag she could get and gently pressed it to the back of Danse's arm to clean the little bit of blood off as he was turned on his side from her. The color had returned to his skin but he was still out of it from the day before and didn't even shift when Curie stitched up his wound. She turned and exited from the room to get another rag and some purified water.

When the door shut behind her, Danse finally stirred in his sleep. He slowly opened his heavy eyes and saw an unfamiliar wall in front of him. Unaware of his location, he shot up in the bed but then slammed his hand to his head when he became lightheaded from the sudden movement. When he recovered, he noticed how he wasn't wearing a shirt and then felt the back of his arm and noticed the stitches there now. He slowly looked around the room he was in and observed how it was definitely post-war built and small to be only a one room building. He rubbed his head again as he started to relax a little and noted how his head throbbed as if he had a hangover.

The door opened again and Curie reentered but had Deacon with her this time. She jumped from the startlement when she saw that Danse was sitting up awake and staring right at her.

"Oh! Monsieur Danse!" Curie had her hand over her chest. Even as a human, or synth, her French accent was still thick as ever, "I wasn't aware that you had awoken! You startled me."

Deacon poked his head out from behind Curie and smiled widely as he held up a clean shirt. "Heyyy buddy! How you holding up?"

Danse didn't appreciate being talked to like a dog and spoke coldly, "Where am I?"

Deacon answered seriously, "The Railroad." When he saw Danse's angry face turn almost hostile and worried, he busted out laughing. "Nah, I'm messing with you man." He approached the Paladin and handed him the shirt. "You're in Sanctuary. Kait brought you in with a caravan. It's great that you're awake finally because I tell you, she was so worried about you; she won't even crack a grin or fake a laugh because she won't stop fretting over you."

Danse slid the shirt on, which was a little too tight for his liking but he didn't complain, before speaking, "Kait's worried?" he paused for a moment, "Well, what about her? How's she doing?"

Curie spoke up with her diagnostic as she approached the Paladin too and handed him the clean water, "Mademoiselle Kaitlyn had only suffered a ruptured eardrum but she is in perfect health otherwise. Time will take care of her. You, on the other hand, just need to take it easy for the day and your arm will be better in no time. I cleaned and treated it before it could get infected so just make sure you don't tear the stitches."

Danse took a large drink from the bottle and nodded when he was finished. "What happened to me?"

Curie cutely laughed and waved her hand as if to say that it was nothing major, "Just too much energy used. Your body shut down after you reached it's peak but you've been resting for about fifteen hours so I say you've gotten plenty of sleep!"

Fifteen hours?! Danse's shocked expression said it all. Deacon laughed at it, "Relax Paladin. It's not like you missed anything good. Kait still has the Courser Chip with her and refuses to leave until you wake up so it's fine."

That wasn't the point. Danse and Kait had to be back of the Prydwen yesterday to turn in their mission. He didn't need to be all the way across the map recovering. He looked out a window and saw Kait across the street with the man he remembered as Nick Valentine.

Deacon watched Danse watch Kait and frowned when he saw Kait and Nick hug. He knew that the Paladin didn't approve just by his body language. "I'm just going to get this out in the open," Deacon spoke to get Danse's attention, "you're in the wrong place to preach about your hate for synths. Even your pretty nurse here is a synthetic."

Danse looked over at Curie and she shyly bowed her head to the Paladin. "I promise," Curie spoke sweetly, "that I only did everything I could to help."

Danse looked down and shook his head slightly at the thought of being worked on by a synth. He stood up now and towered over both the people in the room but looked back out the window at Kait and Nick again. "I just don't know how you could care so much for a synth," he mumbled but more to himself.

When Danse looked back at Deacon, the ever charming and open-minded Railroad agent wasn't amused in the slightest and even a bit offended, "You'd be surprised by how easily one could fall for a synth. I suggest you keep your ignorant mouth shut around here so we don't have a problem."

Before Danse could even respond, Deacon dismissed himself from the room and Curie stood there awkwardly. "U-uhm…," Curie carefully thought of her next words, "would you like to walk around a bit?"

Kait agreed to something Nick had told her and sighed as she looked away. She looked back at the detective as he gently touched her arm and regarded the building that Curie was now exiting. Leaving behind Curie was Danse. When the light hit his eyes, he shielded them quickly as it was almost too much to handle at first.

Danse rubbed his eyes with one hand and by the time he lowered it, he saw Kait just in time as she threw her arms around his torso and hugged him tightly.

"Kait?" Danse quickly said as he looked down at her.

"Danse…," Kait was laughing from the joy as she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her face against his chest, "I'm so glad you're awake!" She felt his hands slide on her shoulders and held him for a moment. She then pulled away from him and pointed up at him as if she were scolding the Paladin, "Don't you ever do that again! You nearly scared me to death!"

Danse smiled down at her as his body warmed up from her smile, "I didn't realize you cared so much."

Kait almost cried from the overwhelming relief and happiness in her. Noticing that she was starting to turn red, she quickly stepped away and lowered her gaze away. "I-I just… I mean.. how was I supposed to explain to the Brotherhood that their Paladin died on my watch? I don't think it would have gone over well." She looked back up to him when she heard him laugh softly. Danse wasn't known to be one to laugh. Her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest so she tried to end the moment immediately.

"Preston and I just harvested the vegetables from the garden and Sturges is cooking up breakfast now." Danse couldn't help but notice how she refused to look up at him. "We should get a bite to eat before we leave."

"Sounds good." Danse said.

"You know, Paladin," the brawler, Cait, started saying at the table as they all sat around to eat, "You're so much more attractive in person than in your pictures. Quite handsome, you are."

Kait shot her eyes up from across the table and her face started turning red with embarrassment from the conversation Cait started up.

Danse was looking at the Irish woman who was seated right beside him, "What pictures?"

Cait grinned and pointed her fork at Kait, "Miss Kaitlyn here draws you a lot." She leaned on the table to be closer to Danse, "I tell you what, When Kaitlyn gets tired of you, you come my way. I'll show you a good time."

"As charming as ever," MacCready commented from beside her.

Cait faced the ex-Gunner, "You shut your mouth MacCready!"

Piper joined in now, "That's enough Cait!"

Cait shot a glare at the reporter then looked over at Kait and saw that she awkwardly poked at her food. "I'm sorry Kaitlyn, but if you don't claim this man, then I will."

How much more awkward and uncomfortable could their breakfast be?

Kait looked up at the other woman finally, "Cait. Shut up please." She caught Danse's eyes and could tell that he was just as embarrassed as she was.

"Yeah Cait," Deacon started fueling the fire. "Besides," he slid his chair over to be right next to Kait, "Kaitlyn's got me." He threw his arm around his best friend then kissed her on the cheek which resulted in the Mayor of Goodneighbor laughing from the entertainment. Oh yeah, Hancock was there and Danse just outright refused to ask why a ghoul was present. "Isn't that right babe?" Deacon added.

Kait set her fork down and refused to look at the Railroad agent as she laughed. The laugh she gave off though wasn't from joy, it was scary and threatening. "Deacon?"

Deacon, with his arm still around her, responded, "Yes honey?" Danse, from across the table, wasn't amused at all. In fact, his stomach was twisted into a sick feeling of jealousy and annoyance.

"If you don't remove your arm," Kait began, "Then I think I will literally kill you."

Deacon quickly pulled his arm away from her and Nick laughed from the other side of her, "I think you should do it Kait. Sometimes violence can be the answer."

"I agree," Preston added. Deacon looked betrayed as he looked back and forth between his friends. "Seriously guys?"

"You started it, man," MacCready said.

Curie raised her hand, "I shall treat any injuries that may happen as a result from this encounter."

Hancock laughed out loud from the end of the table where he sat, "I love my fucked up little family!" Dogmeat sat next to the Mayor and barked with him. "You agree Dogmeat?" Hancock pet the hound on the head. "Good boy!"

Everyone at the table either argued or laughed now besides Kait and Danse. Danse wished to leave as soon as possible and remained quiet as he tried to peacefully eat his meal. He only looked beside him when he felt Cait touch his arm.

"I'm serious, good-lookin." Cait winked at the Paladin. "It's been awhile since I've had a real man."

Danse slid his arm away from the woman. He wasn't interested at all at her proposal and unknowing if Kait heard the brawler or not, Kait suddenly stood up from the table.

"Thanks for breakfast Sturges." Kait said to just him.

"Anytime Kait," Sturges said as she left the building.

Kait walked to her house but with company as Nick quickly caught up to her. "What a lovely time," Nick said from beside her.

"I couldn't agree more," Kait sighed and entered her built house. They walked upstairs to her room and Kait sat down on her bed while Nick pulled up a chair.

"What do you plan on doing now, Kait?" Nick asked.

Kait pulled the Courser Chip from out of her bag and rolled it around in her palm, "I guess I'll return to Tyrant Maxson and get him to help me enter the Institute."

"And how," Nick started, "Do you plan on leaving after you find Shaun? From what you said, he's not going to let you leave just like that."

"He probably will," Kait joked but it wasn't a funny one and she didn't smile from it, "if I sleep with him." She stopped rolling the chip and gripped it tightly instead. "I need to hide."

On queue was the man she thought of next. Deacon was made present as he ascended up the stairs to her bedroom. "Hey, sorry about earlier."

Kait shrugged as if she didn't mind, "It's fine. Don't worry about it. But I actually need to ask something of you." Deacon took a seat on the bed next to her as she continued, "Do you think the Railroad could hide Shaun and I?"

Deacon knew that what she was asking wasn't a laughing matter and he didn't joke, "It's been hard enough lately to hide individual runaway synths here and there. And with the Brotherhood obsessively trying to find anything Institute related, there isn't many hideouts anymore." Kait frowned and looked down at the chip in her hand and Deacon placed his hand on her shoulder, "But we'll try. I'll personally make sure we can find the safest place to hide you and your son. Me and the Railroad have your back Kait."

"Count me in too," Nick added. Kait smiled at the two. She couldn't ask for better friends.

"Oh yeah!" Kait remembered as she stood from the bed and went over to a dresser after she placed the Courser Chip back in her bag. She opened the top drawer and pulled out a pile of picture she had drawn. She flipped through a few before finding the one she sought. "Here," she held a drawing out to Deacon.

He stood and walked over to her to retrieve the picture. When he looked at it, he laughed excitedly, "No way!" Kait had drawn the picture of the Heroic Deacon that he requested a while ago. The only addition to the pile of dead, baddie synths was now a Deathclaw added like a cherry on top for Deacon's amusement.

"This is awesome," Deacon said. "I love it!" Nick was next to him now and chuckled when he saw the art piece.

A knocking was heard from down below and Kait yelled while she still flipped through pictures, "Come in!"

The door was heard creaking open and then closed, followed then by footsteps. Coming up the stairs, Danse was now seen as he entered her room.

"Knight," he began. He looked at her friends and then her, appearing uncomfortable to say what he did next, "We should return to the Prydwen now."

Kait was looking back at him with a stack of drawings in her hand. She looked at Deacon who returned her stare. She could tell that he would immediately set out to find a place for her and her son to live. She looked back at the Paladin and nodded, "Yeah, okay."

Her friends left the room and all that remained was her and Danse. She turned her back to him to put away her drawings but stopped when she felt him touch her shoulder.

"What are those?" Danse asked from over her shoulder. He moved to stand next to her and Kait awkwardly stepped to the side. Danse smiled lightly as he flipped through some of her drawings and stopped when he came to the one she had drawn that night in the church with Deacon. The one that had Danse holding his helmet and looking off into the distance, looking like a real savior.

"I'm not that noble," Danse commented lightheartedly. He noticed Kait smile from the side and she playfully pushed him away before slamming her dresser drawer shut. "You weren't supposed to see those."

Danse's smile broadened. "And why not? Shouldn't I know if I have a secret admirer?"

"You should!" Kait laughed. "And she's a hot-tempered Irish woman named Cait!"

"Well," Danse looked right into her light blue eyes, "What about the other Kait?"

Kait shrugged heavily and joked, "I don't have the faintest idea of what you may be talking about. But this Kait already has admirers of her own. I don't have time for anything else."

"Not even for a Paladin?" Danse laughed and he saw a light shade of red come over Kait's cheeks.

"I promise to this Paladin," Kait entertained the moment, "that I'll make time right now to travel back to the big fancy base in the sky so we can get our reward and praise." She approached him and forced him to back up as she put her hands on his stomach to push him away. "But let me change first."

"Alright." Danse's smile faded and he spoke with a seriousness in his voice before she turned her back to him, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Kait's smile dropped as well and she tried to dismiss the thought with a wave of her hand, "It's alright. I was just overreacting."

"No," Danse took a step to her, which then caused her to take a small, nervous step back. "If I was stronger then this wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't have put that burden on you. It's the last thing I'd ever want to do."

"Danse…," Kait started to become uneasy. She rubbed the back of her head and looked away. "C'mon.. it's not that big of a deal. I'm a grown woman. I can take some stress from time to time."

"Even so," Danse continued, "I promise to never do that again."

Kait accepted his word and the two departed sometime after lunchtime. Kait offered Danse her power armor since he lost his but he insisted that she keep it. They made it back to the Prydwen by the time the sun started to set and when they were almost at the airport entrance, Kait suddenly stopped walking and looked up to the ship in the sky.

"Knight?" Danse looked back at her. "What's bothering you?"

Kait tilted her head down and took out the Courser Chip before staring at it in her hand. "I just… I can't believe that I'm this close. …. After all this time, I'm so close to finally… I'll finally accomplish the one thing that has kept me going and fighting this whole time."

Danse remained quiet as he watched her. He didn't realize that her friend had meant so much to her. He motioned for her to catch up as he turned his back to her to walk onward towards the Prydwen. "Let's go."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Kait and Danse reported to Elder Maxson and, like she had said earlier, they were rewarded with much praise and acknowledgment. Maxson went on about how this is a huge step forward for the Brotherhood and about how the Institute will soon be destroyed now that they had their ticket inside.

"You've been nothing but a blessing to us," Maxson praised as he approached Kait, "ever since you showed up." Kait almost took a step back but froze when Maxson placed his hands on both sides of her face. She wanted to run but was unable to think of anything to do. She felt incredibly uncomfortable and insecure as the Elder touched her with Danse right beside them, witnessing the whole scene. Kait really didn't understand why Maxson was okay to express himself to her in front of the Paladin. She assumed that it was probably because Danse would die for the man in a heartbeat.

Kait was disgusted as she looked into Maxson's dark eyes but she did very well to hide her true emotions. She could see how he wanted to lay his hands all over her and pull her against him but Danse's presence must have done something, for the Elder then removed his hands from her and spoke instead, "Take the chip to Proctor Ingram. Perhaps she can decode it and figure out how to teleport in the Institute."

Kait and Danse saluted to the man before they turned to leave. Danse halted for a moment as well when Maxson called Kait's name for her to wait. The Paladin wanted to grab Kait's arm and drag her away but he knew the Elder was done with his presence so he descended to the lower decks of the Prydwen.

Kait really wished that Danse didn't leave her but knew why he didn't stick around; Maxson would have disapproved. She turned to face the Elder and spoke unwillingly, "Is there something you need, Elder Maxson?"

Maxson closed the space between them and raised his hand to lightly caress her cheek. "When you get the chip decoded, I would like to see you. …. Tonight."

Kait turned her head away to make his hand not touch her anymore, "If there's time sir."

"I'm sure," Maxson said with his forceful voice, "that you'll find the time. I expect to see you then."

Kait really hated the Brotherhood at that moment. Why did Maxson have to favor her? She forced herself to nod to him before she made herself leave the room to go to the lower decks where Danse had disappeared to.

Danse was waiting for her and watched as she climbed down the ladder. When Kait turned around to face him, she saw that he was looking right at her. "What?"

Danse obviously wanted to accuse her of something but instead just asked, "Are you ready?"

Kait nodded but eyed him as she started to walk past him. "Relax," she eventually said. "He just touched my cheek again." She could physically see his muscles relax so then silently apologized to him as she hit him with her next words, "But he has requested me to see him tonight. … I'm going to assume he means to his room."

They stopped walking as Danse faced her, "Why?"

Kait looked at him then shrugged hard and held her volume to a reasonable level, "How am I supposed to know? I don't know why he likes me so much!"

Danse shook his head and tried so hard to hide his emotions. He would never, ever doubt Maxson. The Elder would only ever do things out of the best intentions. "It must," Danse definitely forced himself to say, "be for a good reason."

Kait scoffed. "Really?" she now shook her head from disappointment, "You know as well as I do what his ' _good reasons_ ' are."

She watched as his features formed signs of anger and she shut her mouth. "Would you," Danse spoke firmly, "Stop doubting our leader? You mock him constantly and it needs to stop now. Learn to show some respect."

Kait was taken aback by his scolding and bit back, "Respect, huh? So it's respectful when the Elder lays his hands on me right in front of you? It doesn't have to even be you! If he touches me in front of anyone, do you really find that to be respectful?"

"That's enough!" Danse ordered. Kait knew if she opened her mouth one more time on the matter then he was going to snap. The old Kait would have accepted the challenge, but the current Kait who actually found the Paladin to be a friend didn't want it to go that far. They had already fought too much in their relationship.

"I'm sorry," Kait said lowly and bowed her head a little to her superior. She could see him relax and his face said that he too was sorry for letting their conversation get that far but Kait spoke up before he could, "Let's go already. Ingram's probably impatient now."

They made it to the Proctor and she was excited to get her hands on the chip that Kait passed on to her. After about an hour of wracking her brain over a code from within the chip, Ingram finally caved in said with vast disappointment in herself. "I-I'm sorry Knight. … I can't crack this thing. The Institute has it locked tight."

Kait looked on with disbelief as Ingram handed the chip back over to Kait and excused herself to report to the Elder herself. Kait looked down at the chip and not at Danse, who now looked over at her with an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry Kait. I know how much this meant to you. Maybe we can find someone else? Or another way in?"

Kait, instead of breaking out in tears, rubbed her thumb on the chip and bit at her lip as she thought. "I think… I think I might know someone who can hack into this." When she looked up at the Paladin, he was eagerly waiting. His expression changed from curiosity to strict as he saw the apologetic smile she gave him.

"Who?" Danse demanded.

"A guy I know…," Kait said slowly. She almost laughed nervously, "He's in the Railroad-"

"No." Danse said immediately.

Kait wasn't in the mood to play games, "Then you tell me who can do this." When Danse didn't have a clue, she continued, "I'll be back tonight hopefully."

Danse remained silent but as if he was deciding how he would say his next words, "Do you really expect us to just let you walk out of here? With the one thing we have to get us into the Institute?"

Kait looked betrayed, "What are you-"

"Kait," Danse said with a scary tone, "You've made it painfully clear that when you find your way in, you're going to run. Now you have it. We can't let you leave with that Courser Chip. You'll just have to wait until the Brotherhood can find a way."

"What?" Kait spoke quickly, "No! I promise I'll come back, Danse! You can't expect me to just sit around on my ass, locked up here on this ship all day! If I know someone who can hack this, then I'm going whether you say I can or can't!"

"You can't expect me to believe your word," Danse said coldly. "You've lied plenty of times before."

Kait started to get hot with anger, "I'm not lying this time."

"Then let me come with you." Danse said more as an order rather than asking for permission.

Kait shook her head, "No way! You really expect me to take you to where the Railroad base is? Are you insane? They'd fire on us in a heartbeat!"

"You," Danse was raising his voice and pointed at her with an accusing finger, "should be telling us where their hideout is anyways! It's obvious that your loyalties aren't fully with us and you will not set a foot off this ship until the Brotherhood takes care of the situation! That is an order Knight!"

Kait took a few steps away from the Paladin. Not even Danse was going to stop her from getting to her son. "What if," she tried everything in her power to remain calm, "I gave you a reason to trust that I'll come back?"

Danse watched her put the Courser Chip in her bag, "There is nothing." His eyes suddenly widened a bit and the anger he was feeling towards her started gradually draining away as he watched her actions, "Kait… no. Stop."

Kait removed Nate's wedding ring from around her neck but kept it on the chain. She walked up to Danse but he tried to back away. He didn't want that burden on him. Kait snatched Danse's hand as he stepped away from her and placed Nate's ring in his hand, forcing the Paladin to close his fingers over it.

"Now you know," Kait looked up into Danse's brown eyes with determination burning in hers blue ones, "that I'll be back. But I swear, you better not lose this ring or I will hunt you down."

Danse believed her but he didn't like the situation at all.

"I'll be back tonight," Kait promised and took her leave.

Just as she thought, Tinker Tom hacked into the Courser Chip as if it were just as simple as logging into your own email. There, he found out how the chip teleported the Coursers back and forth between the Institute and the Commonwealth and he made instructions on how to build a machine that would do the same thing. Kait thanked him a thousand times over and Desdemona tried with all her power to make Kait stay but the Knight knew that she had to return to Danse. She really did plan on keeping her word to him. Besides, he had Nate's ring.

Before she left, Desdemona stopped Kait and informed her that Deacon had already been there. Kait felt an overwhelming amount of joy when Des gave her her word that she'd help out the survivor and her son.

"Thank you so much Desdemona," Kait said with the widest smile she could, "It means the world to me."

Kait made it back to the he Prydwen by nightfall just as she promised. She found Danse standing in the power armor hanger talking with Ingram. When she walked up to the Paladin, Danse wanted to be surprised to see her but he knew she'd be back and he gave her Nate's ring back. When he asked if she was successful, she happily waved the instructions back and forth before putting them in her bag with the chip.

Before they got to work, Kait knew she had to see Maxson and, even if she despised doing so, she knew it'd be better to get it over with.

Kait pushed open the door to Maxson's room and saw him seated at the table reading over a report.

"Kait?" The Elder looked over at her when she entered. He now rose out of his seat, "I didn't know you were back. I was informed that you left. I have to say, I'm surprised to see you return."

 _Or you'd hunt me down, right?_ Kait said to herself. Instead she just bowed her head respectfully, "I'm a member of the Brotherhood just as anyone else here. It was my duty to return. And now," she couldn't help but smile, "We have the instructions on how to get inside the Institute."

Maxson's eyes lit up, "Really? That's amazing news Knight!" He laughed and stepped towards her, "You never cease to amaze me Kaitlyn." Kait's smile dropped when he started getting touchy again. Maxson slowly tucked some of her black hair behind her ear, "The Brotherhood would probably still be at square one if you weren't here. You've been such a help to us that I don't know of another way we can thank you."

Kait looked down but because she didn't want to see him anymore, "You don't have to do anything Elder Maxson. I've just done what I can to help."

"And I love that about you," Maxson said in a low voice. He was closer to her now and Kait started to slowly shimmy towards the exit because of it. When she took one step, her back was suddenly shoved against the wall and she couldn't breath as Maxson had his lips on hers.

Kait squeezed her eyes shut and could feel the Elder's hands sliding up her waist to hold her still as he greedily forced his lustful lips on hers.

"Maxs-" Kait tried to say when he broke away for a second but was cut off when he kissed her again. In seconds, Kait was infuriated now. She pressed her hands on his chest and shoved him away as hard as she could, succeeding in the action.

When Maxson looked confused by her refusal, she spoke with deep detest, "Don't you ever lay your hands on me again Maxson! I'm not interested in you and I don't give a shit if you're the Elder! Don't you ever fucking touch me again!"

Maxson's features turned hard, "Well, that is a shame then. I really did see something in you." His voice started turning more and more fierce as he spoke, "It's unfortunate that things had to end this way and I know that once we've given you what you want, you plan on deserting us. Seeing as the only options here are death or imprisonment, the Brotherhood will lock you up instead. I don't want to see a pretty face such as yours killed after all you've done for us." Maxson suddenly held up the instructions and the Courser Chip needed to enter the Institute and Kait's heart dropped. Her eyes were wide and her knees started to feel weak. What a sneaky move, Maxson.

"You've done your part." Maxson said. "The Brotherhood will take it from here. You are dismissed Knight."

Kait saw red. She tried to sprint at Elder Maxson but the door to his room suddenly burst open and two people stepped in. They grabbed Kait by her arms and started dragging her out of the Elder's room while he now turned his back to them.

"No!" Kait screamed and struggled. She couldn't believe that this fucking tyrant was taking her son away from her and she was losing it. "You can't do this to me!"

From down the way, her screams were heard echoing through the halls and Danse sprinted to the situation as soon as he heard her. His eyes widened when he saw handcuffs being put on her and the two other Brotherhood members detaining her with ease.

"What's going on here?!" Danse demanded.

"Paladin Danse." Maxson said from his room without looking at him. "Prepare one of the cells in the airport for the Knight. She's to remain there until she calms down."

Danse couldn't be more shocked by the Elder's words. He looked at Kait as she sobbed and kept her head low. His heart broke when he answered, "Yes Elder Maxson."

Danse had prepared a cell as instructed and held the door open as the two initiates dragged Kait with them. As they reached the cell, one of them took the cuffs off of her as the other pushed her into the room while Danse then shut the door and locked it behind her.

Danse dismissed the other two and looked through the bars of the door at Kait who was on her knees with her back to him. Her body wouldn't stop shaking and she didn't stop crying ever since Maxson took her only way into the Institute away from her.

When he started walking away, he heard her lungs explode as she screamed as loud as she could. Danse found himself ceasing to walk as he looked down. He couldn't feel any more pathetic. He spoke to her as he was still by her door, "You should have just kept your loyalty with us and none of this would have happened Kait."

Kait looked at the stone wall in front of her as she yelled, "Have I not kept my loyalty with you guys?! I've helped you guys so many fucking times and all I've ever asked in return was one- ONE fucking favor!" She looked back and saw Danse standing on the other side of the door and rose to her feet to face him. "How could the Brotherhood do this to me?! This was supposed to be for me! As soon as I got what…," Kait thought of how she would never see Shaun now because of Maxson and her stomach tightened as she sobbed even harder.

Danse was breaking at the sight of Kait suffering and he tried to help, "Just tell me what your friend looks like and I promise that we'll get her out for you. You have my word."

"It's my son." Kait finally said almost inaudibly.

Danse's eyes widened and he was nearly speechless. "W-What?"

Kait body was almost convulsing as she couldn't calm down. "H-his name is Shaun….. he was stolen… from me when he was just a baby.." Kait collapsed to her knees and covered her face with her hands as she curled up in front of the Paladin. "N-Nathan was.. he tried to protect o-our baby boy and they," she gagged a little, "They killed him…. They stole my child from me…!" Kait slid her hands in her hair now and almost pulled her hair out from how tight she gripped it, "You fucking tyrants just stole from me the only thing that would let me see my boy again!"

Danse couldn't possibly think of anything to say that would even remotely make the situation any better. He watched as Kait was finally broken in front of him and his heart was so twisted in guilt, sympathy, and pain that he couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm so sorry…," Kait sobbed to herself. "Please forgive me Shaun…. Mommy tried… I'm so sorry…"

Danse couldn't be there anymore. He finally made himself walk away from her. As he walked down the long hallway, Kait's cried echoed off the walls and were the only thing Danse could hear. He closed his eyes and tried to block it out of his head but he couldn't. He tightened his hand into a fist as he exited the area. He had to be very careful with what he did next.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Kait sat against the wall on the far side of the door. She had her legs straight out in front of her and her hands resting in her lap. Every hour, a Brotherhood initiate would show up to ask her if she'd be okay to be released. Kait answered honestly every time. She told them that she'd attack them if they let her out.

The little bit of eye makeup that Kait always wore was streaked down her cheeks along with signs of never-ending tears. She had finally stopped crying after about eight hours of doing so and she didn't have it in her to cry any more.

Danse was out in the airport with Maxson and Ingram as they reviewed the directions on how to build the teleporter. There were several other initiates there putting together the pieces as instructed. They've been working all day and were still very far off from being complete.

Danse, standing next to the Elder, looked over with Maxson as a Knight approached them.

"Well?" Maxson asked.

The Knight shook his head, "She still refuses."

"Shame." Maxson said. He looked back at the paper before him as he spoke next, "Go ahead and take a break Paladin." Danse looked at the Elder while he continued, "Bring Kait something to eat while you're at it though. She must be starving."

"Yes Elder," Danse saluted before walking off.

It was lunch time and Danse had gathered some things to eat before walking off to the post-war built cells in the airport where Kait resided. When he reached her cell, he silently looked in on her. She still remained seated in the exact same position that she had been during the whole day and, instead of sliding the plate in for her, Danse opened the cell door and shut it behind him.

Danse assumed that if it was anyone else, Kait would have attacked but when she finally looked up and saw that it was Danse, she just looked back down. Danse set the plate down carefully by her before then taking a seat next to her.

Kait didn't hate Danse for anything that happened. She just hated the Brotherhood. Maxson the most. She parted her dry lips to speak and did so lowly, "What did he say when you told him?"

Danse looked in her direction but she didn't look back. "Who? Maxson?" When Kait didn't respond, he assumed that's who she talked about, "About what?"

"Shaun." Kait answered.

Danse understood now and looked ahead again, "He doesn't know. … I didn't tell him."

Kait huffed and shook her head, "That's surprising." She noticed him look back at her, "The only reason why he knew that I planned on leaving was because of you. I'm in here because of that reason and I can't save my son now because of you!" Danse felt the guilt taking over him again and watched her rub her eyes with her palms as she started to cry again. Kait stayed silent for a moment before taking a deep breath and lowering her hands. A tear here and there would slide down her cheeks occasionally. "Sorry…," she practically whispered. "I'm not mad at you Danse… sorry for yelling."

"You're okay." Danse said.

Kait sighed heavily, "I should have never joined."

"I know." Danse commented. Kait wiped a tear away and he continued, "But I don't regret recruiting you." He stuck his hand in his pocket before pulling something out. "Here."

Kait looked over at the bobby pin he had in his hand. "We stop working at eight." He said.

Kait was surprised and looked at the Paladin. Danse appeared to be questioning himself but he allowed her to take the pin before standing up and walking to the door. "You should eat." And the door shut behind him as he exited.

Night had fallen and Kait saw that the time was close to ten on her pip boy. When the next initiate came to her cell to talk to her, she told him to fuck off before sending him on his way. She gave it about five minutes before she finally stood up for the first time that day. As she took her first step, she accidently kicked the untouched plate of food that Danse left her when she walked to the door.

Kait rubbed her eyes before looking out into the hallway on each side as much as she could from in the cell. When she didn't see anyone, she crouched in front of the lock and retrieved the bobby pin before getting to work. It only took a second and the lock clicked. Kait slowly opened the door and glanced out fully into the hallway now. Still not seeing anyone, she slipped out and snuck out of the airport easily.

Danse was sitting in the kitchen area of the Prydwen reading through a report when he noticed a frantic Knight slide down the ladder in front of Maxson's room before banging on the Elder's door. When it opened, Danse eavesdropped on the words spoken.

"Kaitlyn, she's gone!" The Knight panted.

"What?!" Maxson yelled. Danse heard the stomping of boots to metal as they climbed the ladder to the upper deck to then most likely descend to the airport. When the latch shut behind them, Danse rose from the table and turned down the hallway towards where the Elder and his room were to call it a night.

It was the next morning; no one could find Kait anywhere in the area and Maxson planned on sending a scouting party after her as the day went on but that task moved to the very top of the priority list as soon as he saw that the Courser Chip and the instructions for the teleporter were both missing.

"She couldn't have made it far!" Maxson yelled angrily as he stomped through the airport with a group following him, Danse included. "Go to every place she's ever stopped at for the night and go find her home! When you find her, bring her back unless she puts up a fight then shoot her on sight!"

The group came to a sudden halt when they approached the area that the teleporter was being constructed at. There, with her back to them, stood Kait as she observed how much the Brotherhood had gotten done on the project.

Kait looked down at the prototype platform with her revolver in her hand as she had her arms crossed. Strapped to her back was her sniper rifle and she had put on a few extra accessories from the Brotherhood that she helped herself to such as some plated armor and a grenade belt around her waist.

"Kait?" Maxson said with surprise but still very evidently upset. He asked immediately, "How did you get out?"

Kait didn't look back right away and covered for Danse, "You didn't realize that I can pick any lock and it's not that hard to hide a bobby pin." She changed the subject while she scratched her head with the barrel of her revolver, "So this is how it's going to be." She regarded what they had completed, "I still need the Brotherhood's help but after what you did to me, I don't think we're exactly going to see eye-to-eye." She turned around to face the group now, "Instead of working here, you guys are going to give me the resources I need to finish this thing but I'm going to construct it elsewhere."

Maxson immediately declined her offer and took a threatening step closer but it didn't phase her in the slightest, "You are not in the position to give orders around here."

"I get that," Kait began. She was not happy with the Elder, "But you can kill me here, search my body, search my belongings, kill and burn down everything I know and love in this apocalyptic hell-hole but you will not find that chip or the directions to the teleporter anywhere. I guarantee that." When she could practically see the steam bursting from Maxson's ears, she proposed, "This is my proposition. I'm leaving but with the resources I need. _I_ will be the one to enter the Institute and me alone. But I will still willingly help the Brotherhood in exchange. Why should I?" Kait shrugged heavily, "I really don't have a good reason to at all. But I'm a nice person who is just trying to live her own fucking life the way she fucking wants to without being forcefully enslaved to a certain organization. So tell me, what do you want in return?"

The group outside of Maxson was shocked and Danse looked at Kait with amazement. He would never dare speak in such a tone to the Elder, let alone demand anything. She was playing with fire. Very, very strong fire that could burn her to the ground in a heartbeat.

Maxson was irate but he somehow remained civilized in front of his people. "If there is no other way-"

"There's not." Kait made clear.

Maxson took a deep breath to prevent himself from shooting her on the spot. "If there's no other way," he tried again, "then I ask that you speak to Ingram. She has a holotape that needs to be plugged into one of the computers at the Institute to download their files. Also, you must bring one of us with you to wherever you decide to construct the machine to ensure to us that you don't go back on your word."

Kait laughed mockingly at him, "I don't think I'm the one that's gone back on their word. But you have a deal. I'll throw something in extra for you too, just because, again, I'm a nice person." She holstered her revolver, "When I get what I want from the Institute, then I'll let the Brotherhood have free range with it. After I'm done, I don't care what you guys do."

Maxson despised agreeing to her proposal but he did so anyways, "Fine. We have a deal."

"Great." Kait said as she started walking off towards the exit to the airport. "You better send someone with me that I won't kill and send them with the holotape Ingram wants me to have. I'm not stepping on that blimp again."

It wasn't long, perhaps half an hour, when Kait finally got approached. She was waiting outside of the airport with her back rested against a wall.

"Here's the holotape," Danse said as he held it out to her. Kait looked up at the tall Paladin and wasn't surprised that Maxson sent him to accompany her. Danse practically had '#1 Follower' tattooed on his forehead and Maxson knew Danse had an undying loyalty to the Brotherhood. She leaned off of the wall and took the holotape from him before putting it in her bag.

"We've established a supply line from here to Sanctuary." Danse informed, "It might take a few weeks to get everything over there."

"That's fine." The two began their journey back to Sanctuary. Kait said, "Just as long as I can see my boy again, then I don't care."

When they made it to Sanctuary, it was the next day and almost night again. Instead of getting to work on the teleporter, Kait delegated her settlers to fortify their defenses to make them stronger. She had one of her followers work on enhancing her power armor and she set off with some of the others in building spot lights and turrets to place in the surrounding area.

"Is this necessary?" Danse asked her as she finished bolting up one of the spot lights on a roof.

Kait nodded before taking a break by sitting on the edge of the roof and looking down at the Paladin who was still on the ground under her. "I don't know what Maxson's planning. If he tries to attack us by surprise, then I plan on being prepared."

"It won't come to that," Danse said, being unsure himself. "Just as long as you do as you promised then we'll be okay."

Kait wasn't really in the mood to discuss who would break their promise first, "I don't plan on it and I'm not lying. I'd appreciate it if you started to trust me from time to time." She slid off the roof and landed on the ground without the Paladin's help. "I know I've lied to you Danse," she said as she looked up at him, "But never about anything that would jeopardize our lives. I didn't tell you about my son because, first, I didn't know you, then second, you turned out to be kind of an asshole who would have used Shaun against me."

Danse looked offended, "No I wouldn't have."

Kait tilted her head a little at him, "You've used Nate against me."

She had a point.

Hancock turned the corner and his face lit up when he saw Kait, indicating that he had been looking for her. "The upgrades are done on the power armor m'lady."

Kait turned to him and smiled broadly, "Awesome. I expect you to use it if we need to."

Hancock tipped his hat to her, "It'd be my pleasure." He looked up at Danse now and could tell that the Paladin wanted to yell in disapproval to Kait. "Relax friend," Hancock only added the _friend_ part on because he knew it'd piss the Paladin off, "Even a ghoul can properly use power armor."

"Kait-" Danse started to protest but Kait raised her hand, "Hancock, check on the others please. Help them where it's needed."

"On it," Hancock nodded before taking his leave.

Kait finished scouting out her town and called it a night for everyone before she retired to her house with Danse following her.

"If it's okay to ask," Danse began as he stepped behind her, "what happened? …. The other night I mean."

Kait and Danse both walked up the stairs to her bedroom and she took a seat on her bed before she answered. "He kissed me again." She looked up at Danse who was obviously uncomfortable with what she just told him. "I told him to never touch me again." She looked away and half shrugged, "And then he had me detained." She shook her head now, "You disapprove of my friends but I guess we're even because I really don't know why you can follow a man like that."

"He," Danse tried to defend his leader, "really is a good man."

Kait stood up, "I guess I'm just not seeing it." She looked over at the Paladin. "Do you trust me not to tell?"

Danse knew what she was talking about and was silent for too long. He slowly looked into her eyes when she took a few steps to him to be close to him. Kait raised her hands but didn't know if she should touch him or just leave it alone so instead she closed her hands together and held them to her chest with gratitude, "What you've done for me is more than I could ever ask for."

"I just hope," Danse spoke quietly, "that everything works out in the end." He was extremely hesitant to keep talking, "If Maxson ever found out… I've risked everything for this."

"And that's why," Kait gave him a reassuring smile, "I will do everything I can to defend you Danse. I will take the blame for everything. I've got you covered."

"I appreciate that," he exhaled. "My loyalties still fully lie with the Brotherhood. Nothing will ever change that."

"I know." Kait said. "Now," she took a small step away from him, "Let's see the instructions."

Danse nodded and took out the Courser Chip and the folded up instructions to the teleporter from a small pouch he had on him before handing them over to her. Elder Maxson never suspected one of his own to be behind the theft of what was needed to breach the Institute.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Hi everyone! I'm sorry about the late upload. I usually try to get at least one chapter done a day but I've been working like crazy due to the holidays and some really good and really bad things have been going on for like the past 2 days and so I'm having trouble finding the time to work on this story.

But don't worry, I'm not giving up on it just yet; I have much more to come! I think everything's finally easing up so I should be back to normal here in no time.

Thank you so much again to all those who read and comment on my story. Again, it means the world to me and so I hope you enjoy this latest update!

Chapter 16

It was raining hard and getting production done on the teleporter was proving to be difficult. Elder Maxson sent caravans to Sanctuary every day with more parts that were required to finish the project but with the unceasing rain, they weren't getting anywhere. Kait grunted in frustration as she pushed her soaked hair back to be out of her face. She looked over at Danse who stood with two of his brothers that were with the caravan while he quickly wrote on some paper under some shelter. Every time the Brotherhood showed up, Danse had to write a report to Maxson so he knew that everything was still going as planned.

"Here," Danse impatiently passed the documents to the other initiates before they saluted to him and departed. Even the Paladin was getting tired of having to write nearly the same thing every other day, forcing him to stop his work on the machine they were building.

"Kait," Preston rushed up to her as she stayed out in the open and stared at what little they've accomplished. "Get out of the rain. You'll catch a cold out here if you don't find shelter. We'll just have to wait until this passes to continue."

"But," Kait snapped unintentionally at the Minuteman, "we've gotten nowhere! We need to get this done!"

Preston stayed calm when he spoke to the woman he respected, "I understand that but the health of our people is more important right now and as long as we all have our strength up, then we'll get this done faster than we would if we all got sick."

"He's right Kait," Nick joined in the conversation. The detective had nothing to worry about himself but he did care about the others.

"Fine." Kait caved angrily. Danse watched her storm off to a covered driveway and then sit down against the building. Curie soon approached her with the driest towel she could get.

"Help me dry off handsome?" Cait had said next to Danse, making him look away from Kait. Danse looked down at the Irish woman and ignored all her flirtatious attempts with him.

"You're capable." Danse said as he left her standing alone. He was soaked through just as all the others were and found a place to stand alone. He could tell that Kait wanted her privacy and he didn't take too well to any of her friends so he found solitude to be the best choice at the moment. He saw Curie approach him and politely offer a towel to him next, "For you monsieur Danse."

Danse accepted the towel, "Thank you." She smiled and bowed her head to him before checking in with the others. She also had nothing to worry about, sick wise.

The Paladin began to dry his hair before looking off towards Kait. She had just dismissed Deacon's company and pulled her knees to her chest. She messed with Nate's wedding ring and held it close to her lips as she stared at nothing in particular. Danse questioned himself every moment he could ever since he stole the plans from Maxson's room. Never would he ever do that but for some reason, he did for Kait even though she never asked for his help. He did so on his own free will. Something about the survivor made him not act like himself. He thought of her crying and breaking right in front of him and the memory alone made him sick to his stomach. He never wanted to witness that sight again if he could do anything about it. His mind drifted occasionally to what she said Maxson had done to her and he gripped the towel in his hands until his knuckles were white. He couldn't make himself question Maxson but he continuously became consumed with anger and jealousy with every thought about the matter.

"Don't rip that towel now," Deacon said from the other side of him as he approached the Paladin. Danse glared at the Railroad agent and Deacon laughed uneasily. "Hey man, I'm just sayin. We only have a limited amount."

"Was there something you wanted?" Danse irritably asked.

Deacon shook his head nonchalantly, "Nah. There's just no one to talk to. Sad I had to come to you, huh? Everyone is so moody; I can't get Kait to even talk to me hardly. I hate seeing her stressed out like this."

Danse questioned just to ask but he secretly really wanted to know, "Is there something between you two?"

Deacon laughed as if Danse just told a joke, "No, no. I mean, even if there was, you'd just kill me."

Danse wasn't amused, "Why do you say that?"

Deacon eyed him from behind his sunglasses, "Are you really asking that? It's painfully obvious that you've got something for the Boss. Everyone here knows it. Hell, she probably knows it too."

Danse felt his cheeks start getting a little hot but he looked away as if the Railroad agent's words didn't phase him, "Kait was taken in under my wing and it was my duty to mentor her and make sure she succeeded in her assignments. If I seem fond of her, then it's only because I still wish to see her succeed."

Deacon was amused. "Uh huh. You keep telling yourself that buddy. But hey, it's nothing to feel ashamed about. Kait's a great girl and we'd all die for her just as she'd die for any one of us. She's got a charm about her that makes people want to be around her."

For once, Danse had to agree with his enemy.

"But I have to ask, Danse," Deacon began while the Paladin looked away from him, "Why do you do this? What's in it for you? Is it really for the Brotherhood?"

"What else would it be for," Danse stated plainly.

"I know that's all your life is to you," Deacon was serious, "but Kait's told me about what's happened there. I know about what your leader's done to her and what he tried to do. And if you try to do something like that to her as well, then you won't make it long in the Commonwealth as long as there are those of us that would do anything for her."

"I'll keep that in mind," Danse said calmly but he mostly tried to ignore the shorter man. The rest of the day consisted of unrelenting rain and, even though Preston and Piper came up with an idea for how everyone could take their mind off of the stressful matters at hand, most of the settlers weren't in the mood for any such thing and retired to their houses.

Kait laid up in bed awake for most of the night listening to the loud thuds of rain knocking against her roof as she stared up at the ceiling. She ran a hand through her hair and thought about how close they were to finally breaching the Institute but also about how long their project was taking to complete. She knew that if they were still at the airport then they would probably be done already or at least very close to being but there was no way that she was going back for that. Maxson would just find another way to screw her over if she was under his watch.

The tape titled, 'Hi Honey!' clicked off and Kait hit the play button to start it all over again for the unknown amount of times that night.

Kait awoke in the early hours of the morning before the sun even rose to the sound of movement outside. She groggily stood from her bed and slowly made her way to the window to look out. Down in the street of Sanctuary, she saw Danse kneeling down and fixing something on the base of the teleporter before turning to a support and starting on that.

Danse unwedged a stuck piece of metal plating that had gotten jammed on one of the supports before getting back to constructing the rest of it. He finally tore his attention away from his work when he heard someone approaching.

"What are you doing, Danse?" Kait sleepily said. She yawned and rubbed an eye when he responded.

"I'm working on the teleporter." He stated.

Kait finally stopped rubbing her eye when she spoke next, "Yeah, I see that. But it's... ," she checked the time on her pip boy, "4:40 in the morning. You should be asleep."

"I'm fine," Danse said as he returned to his work. "It looks like you need the sleep more than I do."

Kait yawned again and crossed her arms as she watched him, "Does Maxson need this done at a certain time?"

Danse didn't expect that question but answered casually, "No. I just know that everyone wants this done. Myself included."

"Oh," Kait looked around the area before back at the Paladin. "I just assumed that it was ordered through a report or something." That seemed to tick the Paladin off and Kait didn't intend for that.

"Why can't you," Danse faced her now, "see that I'm doing this for you? I've risked my rank, position, my _life_ for you just so you can see your son again. I betrayed the man I look up to and respect for that reason. So when I work on this to get it finished, then I'm not doing this for Maxson. I'm doing this for you."

Kait felt ashamed but tried to defend herself in some way, "I didn't ask for you to do this."

Danse kept his anger at a minimal level, "And if I didn't, you'd still be locked up, listening to how the Brotherhood of Steel was successful in breaching the Institute."

"Danse…," Kait spoke lowly. "I'm grateful…. I didn't mean to sound otherwise. If you're hinting at me repaying you somehow then I gladly will."

Danse felt a wave of guilt hit him for how he spoke to her and he rubbed his eyes before running his fingers through his hair in frustration, "No.. that's not what I was trying to say. After all you've done for the Brotherhood, you don't owe us a thing. And you don't owe me anything. I did this on my own free will." He looked back at what they've gotten done with the teleporter, "I just can't believe I did this. I regret every minute of it and even though I don't agree with what Maxson's done to you, I still respect him and I will follow him to the end."

Kait spoke carefully, "And I won't judge you for that, Danse." She approached him and gently rested her hand on his arm, "Like I've said before, I promise that no one will find out what you've done for me. I don't care if I have the whole force of the Brotherhood hunting me down; they will always believe that I was the one who stole back what was rightfully mine. I won't even tell my friends here."

Danse sighed slowly before resting his hand over hers, "Maxson would never forgive me. …. So I thank you."

Kait smiled up at the Paladin when he looked down at her. When she saw his handsome smile returned to her, Kait broke the moment quickly and slid her hand out from under his. She indicated their project, "I'll help you."

Danse hated how their little moment was so short lived but he didn't bring it up as the two began working. He noticed that Kait didn't really look at him after that. What she was hiding from him was how red her cheeks had flushed because of what had just happened.

It was about a month later and the sun was near setting. Everyone was designated to their own areas as the teleporter was only mere minutes away from finally being done. All the generators were up and running, Sturges had set up a terminal and connected wires between all of the components, and everyone else set to make sure that everything was put together properly.

"Start her up Sturges!" Kait yelled in excitement.

Sturges nodded to her before he took the Courser Chip and connected it to the terminal. Kait was beside him in no time as the power was on and the first bolt of electricity struck.

"Wait, wait, wait…," Sturges grunted as he started typing something frantically on the computer.

Kait's hope started to dwindle as she looked at the man, "What's wrong? What's happening?"

The machine suddenly died down and the last flicker of electricity flashed before it was gone.

Sturges spoke before Kait could panic, "Okay, I got it. It's no big deal." He smiled at Kait reassuringly, "The system just lost connection. All she needs is some more power and we're golden."

"Are you sure?" Kait questioned.

Sturges nodded. "Yeah I promise. I'll get to work on it immediately."

By the time they were all done with the final generator, the sun was down again. Instead of starting it up again, the others convinced Kait that they would wait until the morning to try again. Sturges promised a thousand times over that it would work and she finally gave in and agreed with the others. They didn't know how long she'd be gone and it'd be better if they all had fully rested before she departed.

Cait walked to the garage that had the power armor station within and called to the others, "I think this calls for a celebration however!" She turned on the radio and tuned it into the Diamond City station.

"We should be resting," Kait called to the Irish woman but smiled unintentionally as Cait ran passed her but not without grabbing her arm and dragging her out into the street first.

"Nonsense!" Cait laughed. She grabbed MacCready now and forced him into a dance which he soon melted into.

"I have to say," Nick spoke up as he took Kait's hand, "this might not be a bad idea. Let's have some fun before you leave."

Kait laughed lightly, "As you wish, Mr. Valentine."

Danse seated himself in a chair under a sheltered car port as he watched the other settlers of Sanctuary gather around as the music sang in the background for them to dance to in the street. He was a little amused by what he witnessed but deep down, he was truly nauseous with the anxiety of what was to come. What if Kait didn't make it back? Or what if her son wasn't even there anymore? What if he was dead? His stomach twisted into an uncomfortable knot when he thought about all the horrible outcomes that could result from what was going to take place the following morning.

His thoughts snapped back to reality when he heard Kait's warm laugh rise above the music. The Paladin saw as the Railroad agent grabbed Kait in his arms and spun her around. Danse felt a sharp sting of jealousy as he watched Kait throw her arms around Deacon's neck and how he slid his hands along her waist in return. Deacon had told Danse that there was nothing between the two but Danse constantly questioned it. If there wasn't anything between the two, then why were they so comfortable with each other? Danse broke his eyes away from the scene as he couldn't watch it anymore. His mind continuously drifted to the idea of being that close to Kait but he fought those thoughts away as soon as they'd arise. His training in the Brotherhood disciplined him enough to know how to be on a professional level with others but his chest hurt from all of the clouded emotions he was undergoing. He just wanted to see her as a comrade and a friend but his body and mind longed for it to be so much more and when he thought about how she might not make it back, then he almost couldn't take it anymore.

"C'mon Paladin." Kait's voice broke through his thoughts. Danse looked up with surprise as Kait stood before him with her hand out. Kait's smile was kind, "We couldn't have done this without you."

Danse hesitated on accepting her hand but was forced to as Kait snatched his; unwilling to take no as an answer. She dragged the tall man in the street with the others before returning to the merriment. Danse felt awkward and uncomfortable. He had danced before in his life but before he was ever with the Brotherhood. Since joining, he had never engaged in such activities.

Kait forced the Paladin to dance with her and he was surprised by how easily he blended in with the moment. He took her hand in his and helped her spin before pulling her back to him where she then surprised him by hugging him tightly. Kait squeezed herself close to him before pulling away and looking up to him. She couldn't help but note how cute Danse was when he was surprised.

"I owe you everything Danse." Kait said lowly to just him. "You fulfilled your promise you gave to me all that time ago and I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you." her smile grew wide and and looked to be on the verge of tears. "Thank you so much Danse."

Danse smiled back down to her and he gently slid his hands on her arms up to her shoulders. Before he could respond, he suddenly noticed something flash in her eyes and that's when he realized it. She was scared too. Scared of what was to come and of what she might find on the other side.

Kait's face seemed all too obvious to Danse now as she stepped away from him. She sported a smile but he knew that every bit of it was faked. As if the world around him didn't exist anymore, he pushed through the crowd to follow her as she retreated to her house for the night. He couldn't let her go through with it now. He just couldn't.

Kait was in her room now and she looked down at her wedding ring before twisting it back and forth on her finger. Her mind wouldn't ease up as the worry was becoming too much. What would she find in the Institute? She turned around and jumped from the startlement as she then saw Danse standing behind her.

"Danse!" Kait laughed and put a hand over her chest. "I didn't even hear you enter." When she saw how serious he was, she frowned and grew uneasy, "What's wrong?"

Danse knew how she would react to his words but he had to say it, "You're not going."

Kait was taken aback by his words, "What? You mean tomorrow?" When Danse nodded, the fumes started to grow within her immediately, "Like hell I'm not!"

Danse shook his head, "I can't let you do this. There are too many things that could go wrong and the risk is too much. Maxson was right; the Brotherhood will take it from here."

Kait looked at him with disbelief, "Are you serious right now? Why the fuck can't I? It's my son on the other side!"

Danse watched as the hate in her eyes started to burn brightly and he was truly sorry, "You know as well as I do that he might not be there or you might not like what you'll find. You don't know what will happen when you're there and I can't risk that. What if you get killed?

Kait stepped closer to him threateningly, "I don't give a shit if it's a risk you can't take; I am! Danse, this is my son and my life! I'm going whether you like it or not!"

Danse towered over her and used his authority against her, "I will not lose you! I'm not letting you go and that's final!"

Kait shoved him hard and he stumbled a few steps backwards from it, "I don't know if you realize this Danse, but I'm not under your command anymore! I'm not a slave to the Brotherhood and you don't get to order me around!" When she saw that he wasn't going to ease up in his argument either, she then yelled, "You give me one good reason why I can't go!"

Danse crossed the room as a result of her words. Kait almost tripped backwards by how close he stepped to her and her anger fell away as Danse's hands slid to each side of her face. Kait tried to take a step back but Danse stepped with her and her back hit the wall when he pressed his lips against hers.

Kait was shocked by his actions. Normally, she'd smite anyone on the spot for touching her in such a way but as she felt Danse's kiss deepen with passion and longing, she felt her eyes flutter close as her heart felt as though it'd explode out of her chest.

Every time their lips would part from each other's, they would meet again with more want and need for one another. Danse removed his hands from her face and found the curve of her waist instead and a wave of excitement hit him when he felt her soft hands slide along his neck and to his jawline as she pulled him in more.

If it were up to him, he would never let the moment end but he knew it had to when he finally pulled his lips away from hers. He wanted to kiss her so hard again when he saw how red and flushed her face was but instead, he spoke lowly, "I can't let you go because I'm terrified that I'll lose you Kaitlyn. And I can't…. I can't lose you."

Kait couldn't speak for the first few heartbeats. She slowly looked down and her hands fell from his face to his chest. "Danse…," she spoke softly, "I'm going…. This is just something I have to do."

Her words pained him and Danse caressed her face. "I know..," he caved in a sigh. "I was hoping… I don't know what I'm going to do if you don't make it back tomorrow."

Kait still didn't look up at him, "Don't look at it that way. I promise I'll come home."

 _You don't know that_ , Danse painfully told himself. He finally backed away from her knowing that nothing was going to change with her quest. "You better come home." Danse spoke as an order. He took another step back before turning away from her and exiting the house.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: I'm still kinda sticking to the original story but when it comes to the dialog between the SS and Father, I didn't feel like listening to every line over to get it exact so I did what I could anyways. And it won't be too drastic I think, but I'm going to kind of go off the original story path to add a few things in the future but it is a fanfic, so it's all pretty much made up anyways.

Enjoy!

Chapter 17

Kait nervously adjusted the strap to her sniper rifle as she walked down the street and towards the machine they had finally completed the day before. All standing around waiting for her were all her friends and they appeared just as nervous as she was. Kait passed by Danse as she stepped up on the platform and their eyes met but no words were exchanged between them.

"Please be careful over there Kait," Nick said as he approached her.

"I'll try," Kait tried to give a reassuring smile but the detective knew she forced it.

"You ready?" Sturges asked as Nick backed away from her. Kait nodded to him and the man began his work on starting the machine.

The first flash shot from the machine and Kait jumped unintentionally and grabbed Nate's ring around her neck because of it. The power was at full capacity and blue light lit up the whole street. Danse stood back and watched with worry as he saw Kait bring Nate's ring to her lips and close her eyes before she was then gone.

The bright lights were gone and Kait was now in a circular, dimly lit room. She exhaled heavily after she realized she was holding her breath. She looked towards the only exit and saw a desk but with nobody seated. She let go of Nate's ring and began slowly walking to the next area.

Kait cautiously looked around the new room before glancing at the terminal that was at the desk. In her bag, she had the holotape that Ingram needed her to insert to download the Institute's secrets. She scurried to the computer while she had the chance and the files were downloaded in no time after she scouted for cameras but she couldn't find any in her current room. There. Her favor was paid now.

The only way she could go now was forward and she took her first step down into the next room.

"Hello." a male voice on an intercom suddenly spoke up which made Kait halt in place.

"I wondered when you would make it here."

Kait looked up and around the next room and could now see a camera on her and she stared into it, assuming that whoever was speaking to her was watching her on the other side as well.

"You're quite resourceful." The man said. "I'm known as Father. The Institute is under my guidance."

Well, whoever this Father character is was going to give Kait back her son or else. She was not going to leave until she had Shaun in her arms again.

"I know why you're here." Father spoke as if reading her mind. I'd like to discuss things with you face to face. Please," the cylindrical elevator directly in front of her suddenly opened. "Step to the elevator."

Without much choice, Kait obeyed. The door shut behind her and her descent began.

"I can only imagine what you've heard," Father spoke casually, "What you may think of us. I'd like to show you that you might have the wrong impression." Kait's eyes suddenly widened as a new sight became presented before her. A magnificent, impressive and spectacular sight.

"Welcome to the Institute."

The ride down seemed to last forever and when it finally came to a stop, she was in another isolated area with a long hallway. On the far end was another elevator for her to enter which she did. Kait found herself sliding her thumb on Nate's wedding ring as the door opened one last time. She was in yet another room. Directly in front of her was a glass cell with a little boy with black hair sitting within with his back to her.

Kait almost fainted. She felt as though she was bolted to the floor and she used all her strength to make herself move. She couldn't believe it. Tears had already began falling and she eased to a stop right on the other side of the glass.

Her mouth was dry and her voice almost cracked when the words slid out of her mouth in a broken whisper, "Shaun?"

The boy suddenly looked back at her and was confused by the unknown woman speaking to him. He slowly stood up and faced her, "Who are you?"

Kait laughed a little through the tears from the disbelief of actually seeing her sweet, young boy and hearing his voice. She had never even heard him speak his first words so now was the experience of it. "I-it's me… Shaun…. I'm your mom."

Shaun backed away from the glass and his features expressed worry, "Father? What's going on?"

Kait's smile dropped and she quickly put her hands up for him to be quiet, "Shh.. shhh…. It's okay. Mommy's here. J-just let me in. Please Shaun. We're leaving this place."

Shaun was scared now, "What? No! Stay away from me lady! Father! She's trying to take me away!"

Kait was forced to wipe away her tears as she started to become blinded by them. When she was done, she held her hands up again, "No Shaun! Please, open the door! P-please Shaun… it's your mom. Please let me in!"

Shaun was too scared now to listen to Kait and her knees started growing weak from the sight of her boy in a state of panic. The door next to his cell on the outside of it slid open and an old man stepped out of it.

"Shaun," the man began. "S9-23. Recall code cirrus."

Kait had to take a step back and cover her mouth from the shock when Shaun dropped his head and became deactivated in front of her.

Shaun was…. Shaun wasn't there.

Kait glared at the man now in pure hatred as he started taking slow strides towards her.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" The man said. When he saw the murderous intent in Kait's eyes, he held his hands up defensively but he stayed completely calm. "It's alright. I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Allow me to start over." He put one of his hands on his chest, "Welcome to the Institute. I am Father."

Kait stomped towards him but stopped before she got too close to choke him, "I don't care who you are! Where is my son?! Where is Shaun?!"

Father spoke professionally, "I know you've overcome many obstacles just to find your son. But just relax. Your son is here in the Institute. Much closer than you realize."

"Then bring him here!" Kait snapped. "Give me Shaun!"

"Your perception of time has been misguided," Father began as if she didn't even say anything. "When you emerged from your vault, you had no idea where your son was or how old he was. When you finally saw him, you believed him to be a ten year old boy, therefore believing that since he was taken, only ten more years had passed. Is it so hard to believe that instead of ten, _sixty_ years had passed?"

Kait's eyes grew wide as she started picking up what he was saying. But he was lying. He had to be.

"Well," Father smiled, "here I am. I am your son. I am Shaun."

"No," Kait breathed and shook her head, "you're lying…. You have to be lying..!"

"Why is it so difficult to accept?" Father asked. "Or perhaps you don't want to believe it."

She didn't. She really didn't. But Kait couldn't help but see Nate's features in the older man before her now. She knew that he was speaking the truth when she could see her deceased husband in him. "What they did," Kait whispered, "It was wrong…."

Shaun half nodded and half shrugged, "I will agree that Kellogg's methods where a bit brutal and unfortunate, but something great had come from it." He opened his arms, "Look around you. The Institute is the future of this world. We've already accomplished so much. Unfortunately, humanity is not yet ready for our presence to be made, so for now, we remain underground. But one day, we will restore this world to be great and prosperous like it once was."

Kait took a step back from her son and shook her head, "This was _great_?" she tightened her hand into a fist, "I watched as they killed your father, my husband, Nathan, right in front of me as he was trying to protect you! They stole you from his dying arms and something _great_ had come from it? Are you kidding me?!"

Shaun frowned deeply, "You don't understand-"

"And I don't want to!" Kait backed away and slid her hands in her hair. She couldn't believe this. Her son was the leader of an organization that the whole Commonwealth wanted dead and he boasted about how great their technology was. Call her selfish, but Kait didn't care about a brighter future and all that bullshit. She wanted to end it several times over for everything she had witnessed and had to go through in her post-war life but the only thing keeping her from pulling the trigger was that last glimmer of hope that her son was still alive. She lived on and fought on just to see her son again one day and here he was. It was too much for her to handle at the moment and she made that clear.

"This is too much," Kait paced, unable to stay calm. "I can't do this! Please, get me out of here now!"

Shaun nodded, appearing to be understanding, "As you wish. To leave, just go speak to Doctor Li in Advanced Systems. She will get you out." He stepped out of the way so Kait could get to the door behind him. As she walked passed him, he spoke one more time to stop her, "All I ask is that you come back, mother. I would love to see you again. Maybe then, we can talk more about this."

Kait heard him and considered his request but she didn't reply. Instead, she got away as fast as she could. When she got to the main floor of the Institute, she ignored all eyes on her and everyone who tried to make conversation with her. From what she gathered however, the whole Institute knew who she was and they all seemed to respect her.

The bright sign that read Advanced Systems was found quickly and Kait rushed in. It didn't take long to find the doctor that Shaun mentioned and Kait ignored all brief conversations. Li installed a Courser Chip in Kait's pip boy and as soon as she could get her fingers working on the screen, Kait was gone in a literal flash.

Pre-war and post-war buildings surrounded her on each side of the street as Kait arrived back in Sanctuary. She was back on the teleporter and no one was around- not yet. She took her first zombie like step off of the platform when the others finally made it to her after seeing the bright flash.

"Kait!" Piper was the one to speak first in excitement. "You're back!" Her smile quickly dropped when she saw that Kait was alone. The others caught on to that too.

Danse was quiet as he let the others push past him to get to the survivor. He couldn't think of any words to say. He knew she wouldn't like what she found and that hurt him deeply. Kait wasn't crying, but she wasn't anything. She didn't smile, frown, speak, or even look at any of them. She just kept walking.

"Kaitlyn," Nick spoke carefully as he gently grabbed her arms to stop her. "Talk to us." The detective finally got Kait to look up.

Kait looked into Nick's golden eyes and thought about the synth before her. Did Shaun make him? Was one of her most cherished friends created by her own son? Kait raised her hand up and slid it along Nick's skin textured face and her eyes flicked to his robotic hand as it grabbed hers.

"Kait," Nick spoke very calmly, as if he had to be really careful, "What happened? …. Where is he?"

Kait took a step back and looked around at all the others as they waited patiently. She felt surrounded and suffocated. Her eyes passed over Preston, who was ready to destroy the Boogeyman of the Commonwealth, then Deacon who was working to screw over the Institute at every impasse, and then finally Danse. The Brotherhood of Steel wouldn't rest until the Institute was burning in hell and everyone and everything in it would go down with it. Even if the leader was her own son.

Reality hit her like a crushing wave. Her son was the one person that everyone in the entire Commonwealth wanted dead and she never had the chance to even watch him grow up to get to that point. On top of that, she had helped every other faction get even closer to achieving that goal. Her eyes found Danse's and he stared back at her with a seriousness that showed that he could read her like a book. Kait promised the Brotherhood that when she found what she was looking for, which she did, then they had a free pass to the Institute and could do what they wanted from there. She had to break her promise; there was no other way but, as her eyes finally started to water as she looked into Danse's brown ones, she knew that not even the Paladin would let her go back on her word now. They had gotten too far.

"Kait," it was Deacon now that pushed through her thoughts. The Railroad agent was at her first when she fell to her knees and broke into tears. Deacon was kneeling down with her and he held her close, sliding one hand in her hair to push it out of her face, "Talk to us Kait. We're here for you. Your friends are here."

Kait clinged onto Deacon's white shirt as she hugged herself close to him and sobbed into his chest. "Shaun…," Kait breathed out, "He's not ten years old. …. He's sixty." She then pushed herself away from Deacon and stood up, taking a step back so she could get ready to run away if she wanted to, "S-Shaun…. Shaun leads them. …. My son is the head of the Institute."

No one spoke. Everyone just looked between each other, speechless, before looking at Kait. Kait looked down away from everyone and rubbed her eyes roughly. She didn't want to be around anyone anymore. She needed to leave. "I'm so sorry everyone…," Kait cried. She took another step back before turning and running away from everyone there.

Her feet led her all the way up the hill behind Sanctuary to Vault 111 overlooking the rest of the Commonwealth. She wasn't gone long, maybe an hour in the Institute and the sun still shone brightly above everyone. Kait paced back and forth before finally hitting her back to one of the metal buildings that were by the vault entrance and sliding down to sit.

"What am I supposed to do?" Kait gripped her hair again and hit her head hard on the metal wall she sat against.

"Don't do that," a voice ordered quickly. Kait jumped and looked over to see Danse approaching her.

"Danse?" Kait was a little surprised. She looked behind him and saw that there was no one else. Just him.

Danse quietly walked up to her before taking a seat next to her. Kait awkwardly looked ahead of her and wiped away any remaining tears that may be on her face.

"I'm sorry," Danse finally spoke. When Kait looked back at him, he continued without looking at her, "I knew you wouldn't like what you found on the other side. But," he glanced at her now and wanted to move his hand to hers but stopped himself, "I can't describe how happy I am to see you return in one piece."

Kait thought of their kiss the night before and she just wanted to collapse in his arms and be held but she stayed put, "I told you that I would." Their eyes met and Kait could tell that he wanted to touch her and hold her just like she wanted him to but he didn't move either.

"H-here," Kait broke their moment and dug through her bag. She pulled out the holotape and gave it to Danse. He saw that she wanted to say more so he urged her on, "What is it?"

Kait nervously messed with her wedding ring as she thought of the proper words to say, "I….," her words began to fall short; afraid of how Danse would react. "I need more time. … I need the Brotherhood to hold off on their assault for right now."

Just as she thought, Danse wasn't happy but his words held no anger, "Maxson won't approve of this. You promised to hand over the passage to the Institute and if you now go back on your word, he'll take it by force."

"I know." Kait sighed loudly and tightened her hands into fists. "But don't you understand Danse? My son is the leader that you guys are setting out to kill! I need more time to think about this! I can't just let that happen!"

"I understand," Danse was calm, "But Maxson won't. I'm sorry Kait-"

"Let me talk to him!" Kait interrupted. "I'll talk to Maxson! Maybe we can arrange a deal; I'll do anything!"

Danse shook his head and sighed heavily. "Kait, you can't-" He was cut off again but this time by Kait moving in front of him. She grabbed his hands and held them tightly and her eyes were screaming out for a chance to be given to her. "Please Danse," Kait pleaded. "I'll come back with you… Let me talk to Maxson. You have to let me try."

Danse knew that it'd be pointless but he caved anyways, "Okay. Fine. You can talk to Maxson."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"I don't think this is such a good idea Kait," Nick said as she slid one of her books in her bag before closing it.

"I agree," Deacon spoke up. "You can't seriously be thinking about returning to that guy."

Kait pulled the strap to her bag over her shoulder and she faced her two friends as they stood in her room with her, trying to stop her from leaving with Danse. "That guy," Kait began, "Is planning on wiping out the Institute as soon as he finds out that I've entered it and returned. I need to talk to him to stop him."

"But," Deacon was the one to argue, "Maxson locked you up in a heartbeat and without a second thought. Who's to say that he won't just shoot you this time when you tell him no?"

Kait understood where he was coming from, "I have Danse with me."

"C'mon hun," Nick sighed. "He's a Paladin in the Brotherhood of Steel. He's as loyal as a dog could get to their owner. If Maxson says shoot, then Danse will pull the trigger."

"No he won't," Kait defended him. She was the only one who knew what Danse had done for her and, after their kiss, she was sure he'd protect her in any way he could. "It won't get that far anyways." She tried to walk past them to get away but they stayed on her heels.

"Kaaaaiiiit," Deacon pleaded. "Don't do this! Or take one of us with you!"

They were outside now and Danse was standing out there waiting. He leaned off of the building he was against when he saw the trio emerge from the building.

Kait turned to face the two with her, "Deacon, if I take you, they will execute you for being an enemy. If I take Nick, then they'll kill him just for being a synth. I'll be with Danse and everything will be alright." She gently nudged Deacon's chest, "Besides, doesn't the Railroad want to destroy the Institute too? Why are you upset that I'm returning to the Brotherhood? Afraid that they'll beat you to the punch?"

Deacon was evidently upset, which he didn't really show too often, "I'm not a brutal murderer like those assholes. The Railroad would at least understand your situation. We're not going to kill your son."

"He's just looking out for your best interests," Nick sided with Deacon. "You should listen to us." Before Kait could answer, Danse was over her shoulder as he entered the conversation.

"I'll make sure Kait," Danse began, "remains protected. I get that those who don't understand the way the Brotherhood of Steel are trying to protect the people of the Commonwealth think that we are tyrants, but Elder Maxson isn't the brute you believe him to be. He'll listen to her before making a judgement."

"Before locking her up again, you mean?" Deacon spoke irritably.

Danse wasn't in the mood for any of their games so he just calmly stated, "No. If there is no reason given for detainment, then that call won't be made."

Deacon spoke to Kait now, "You don't seriously trust him, right?"

"That's enough Deacon," Kait said. "We're leaving and everything will be okay. I'll come back. I always do, right?"

"I get that we can't say anything to sway you," Nick began. "But please get out of there if things turn south. If that Maxson fellow tries to do anything else to you, defend yourself."

"Trust me," Kait promised, "I will. Maxson won't touch me again." She turned her head slightly when she felt Danse touch her shoulder.

"We need to go now," Danse said.

Kait nodded to the Paladin and said her final goodbyes to her friends before they could try to force her to stay again.

The two walked to the airport instead of signaling for a Vertibird. Kait insisted that she didn't want the Brotherhood landing too close to Sanctuary due to the company she kept there and Danse didn't argue. Kait had a feeling that he'd rather prolong their return to the Prydwen than arrive immediately to break the news to the Elder.

It wasn't long when they had made it to one of the Minutemen established camps named the Starlight Drive-in. Upon approaching the settlement, a settler came sprinting up to Kait at the sight of her.

"Hey," the man caught his breath, "Are you with the Minutemen?"

Kait was taken off-guard but recovered quickly, "Uh, yeah. Yes, I am."

"Good!" The man looked desperate and he put his hands together to beg, "Please! You gotta help us! These raiders came by the other day and they kidnapped my wife! They said that if we don't pay the ransom, then they'll kill her! Please, I'm begging you! Help me!"

Kait was startled but nodded with determination, "Of course we'll help. Do you know where they went?"

"Y-yes!" The man said with a relieved smile, "I'll point it out to you if you show me your map."

"That's near the police station," Danse commented as he watched where the man pointed on her pip boy. "We can radio Rhys to check it out."

Kait almost sneered at the thought of Knight Rhys and she shook her head, "No, we got this. It's on the way to the Prydwen." She smiled at the panicked man and nodded to him again, "I promise we'll save your wife."

"Oh thank you, thank you!" The man smiled widely. "Please hurry!"

The two restocked on food, water, and ammo just for the heck of it before setting out to the building that the settler pointed out. When it became visible in the distance, it appeared to be about an eight story office building with wooden barricades placed all around the front area with raiders placed at every checkpoint.

Kait and Danse were crouched behind some cover. It was Kait who spoke first, "Going in guns blazing won't be the best option. They'll probably kill the hostage if they realize they're under attack."

"I agree," Danse said. "But it's still daylight. Even if we take a silent approach, they'll still find us."

Kait suddenly gave Danse a look that made him very uneasy, "What?"

Kait gave him a nervous smile, "I'll distract them. Then you head in first."

Danse became deathly serious, "No."

Kait rose up and Danse gripped her wrist immediately and yanked her back down to him. "I said no."

Kait pulled her hand away from him forcefully, "Well, it's a good thing that you don't order me around anymore then." She rose up again and backed away from him, "You better move quick."

Kait ran out into the street leading straight to the building. In the corner of her eye, she could see Danse quickly moving along the buildings to go around. She knew he wasn't happy with her at all but they didn't have the time to devise an elaborate plan.

The raiders caught sight of Kait and immediately held their guns up to her, "Who goes there?"

Kait held her hands up and stopped when she got close enough, "Just a survivor, like you guys. Say, I just jumped a caravan a few blocks back but I can't carry all that stuff on my own. You guys help me out, I'll give you a cut of what I got there."

A female raider with half of her hair shaved off spat on the ground from on top of a barricade. "Bullshit. I say we just kill you here and now, bitch!"

Kait shrugged but was prepared to be fired upon. Luckily, she was right next to a car so she could take cover immediately if she needed to before fleeing. "Fine, but that's a shit load of jet."

"Jet?" a raider with his whole face painted with black stripes and markings quickly chimed in. "H-hey, I could use some more jet."

"Me too!" Another raider joined in. The female rolled her eyes before yelling, "Fine! Let's go get the goddamn jet!"

"Great!" Kait smiled and motioned them to follow as she jogged off. Like she hoped, all the Raiders at the front barricades had abandoned their posts to follow. Raiders were such idiots. Also like she planned, after about a block away, she lost them with ease.

Danse had entered the building from the front as soon as all the raiders posted were gone from sight. On the first floor, there wasn't anyone in the main room but he could hear casual conversations just beyond the walls. He hugged one side of the room before finding a staircase. He scouted the area before quietly climbing up them to get to the next floor.

Kait took cover from on top of a nearly destroyed building. As soon as the bullets stopped hitting the bricks she was behind, she poked out a bit and took a shot to kill off the last raider in the group she led astray. When she was clear, she took to the streets and sprinted back to the building to catch up with Danse.

Danse wasn't used to the stealth approach as he took out a combat knife and silently killed a raider as he covered his mouth. Being in the Brotherhood, when things needed to get done, they would always just storm in with full suits of power armor and destroy anything in sight. Danse was still pissed off at Kait for the move she pulled but he had to admit, she was rubbing off on him. He agreed that it was much better to move through a place unnoticed rather than being shot at every second.

He was almost near the top. The raiders that had attacked the settlement weren't anything to sweat over. Their numbers were low and their armor poor. The most defenses they had were all posted outside. Danse was crossing a room with three different doors to elevators when he saw that one of the lights were blinking, indicating someone was coming up. He quickly pressed himself to the wall beside the door when it slid open after dinging, indicating that the desired floor had been reached.

As soon as a limb came in sight, Danse grabbed the raider and slammed them to the ground in front of him. He had covered their mouth and raised his knife high before he planned on piercing their chest but his hand holding the blade suddenly became weak and he dropped it.

Kait was terrified as Danse held his hand strongly over her mouth. She watched in horror as he almost killed her and exhaled heavily when he finally let her breathe.

"N-nice to," Kait swallowed hard, "see you too Danse."

Danse pressed both his palms to the ground by each side of her head as he took a deep breath himself. He wasn't amused or even relieved to see her. He was immensely grateful that he recognized her in time to stop himself but he was very upset with her. When he looked into her eyes, she knew she was in trouble.

"I've had enough of your reckless behavior." He stated coldly.

Kait, still laying under him, furrowed her brows, "It worked didn't it?"

"It doesn't always," Danse said. "I wish you'd listen to me regardless of you being in the Brotherhood or not. I could have killed you."

Kait started to sit up and he moved back to let her. "But you didn't."

Her words only made him worse. She watched as he made his hands into tight fists and he glared at her. When this was over, she was definitely being yelled at but now was not the time. They had a hostage to rescue.

Killing the raiders and making it to the top floor was a breeze. As they came to the top floor's office, Kait and Danse spotted the hostage tied up within. She appeared overall unharmed and Kait saw only three raiders standing guard within the room chatting away.

Kait made to move into the room quietly but she felt Danse tightly grab her shoulder and shove her back. Before she could react, he stood up and raised his laser rifle before tearing through the three loudly. When the raiders were dead, Danse didn't glance at Kait as she now appeared upset. Instead, he went to the hostage and untied her.

"We cleared the building and the front entrance." Danse informed the stolen wife as she was free. "Can you make it from here?"

The woman rubbed her wrists and couldn't appear any more grateful, "Yes! Oh thank you! I'll head straight home!" She threw her arms around Danse and gave him a grateful kiss on the cheek before running off.

After the woman was gone, Danse heard Kait move up behind him but he ignored her for the moment as he instead searched the room for any supplies.

Kait grew annoyed from his actions and shrugged hard before turning away from him, "I guess I'm not here then." She sighed and moved out of the room. She found a roof exit and opened the door to the outside. When the lack of light hit her, she was surprised. Had that much time already passed? Kait looked at her pip boy and saw that it was almost nine at night and she thought about where they could then make camp for the night. She checked her map and saw that the Cambridge Police Station was still about three or so hours away and considered heading there but was turned off by the idea when the thought of Rhys popped up in her head. They'd find somewhere else to rest.

Kait stepped fully outside now and saw a makeshift bridge built from the roof she was on to another, shorter building. From where she stood, she could see that there were sleeping bags and a mostly intact roof on the other side. It must have belonged to the raiders and they were all gone now.

Kait started crossing the rickety bridge and it was honestly terrifying but she remained calm and moved slowly. Soon behind her was Danse as he caught up to her.

Kait looked around the new room she was in. There was a fire pit for cooking with six sleeping bags placed around. A chem station and dressers placed here and there with some cans of cram and instamash lying around. She closed her eyes and held her breath when she heard the Paladin finally speak.

"This has got to stop," Danse made clear as he walked up behind her.

Kait opened her eyes and started to argue, "I don't see why this is such a big deal, Danse. My planned worked. The raiders are dead and the girl was saved. Why are you so upset over this?"

"Because," Danse was losing his temper, "you could have gotten yourself killed! Haven't I made it clear enough that I don't want to see that again?!"

Kait faced him now and yelled at the same volume he was, "But I didn't! I'm still alive! Be happy that my plan actually worked!"

"That's not the point!" Danse stepped closer to her, "I can't stand watching you so willingly put your life in danger! I don't want to chance that!"

Kait laughed but as a way to cease her growing annoyance in the Paladin while she shook her head and looked away. She cast her eyes back at Danse when she opened her mouth, "This isn't your life to worry like that over! It's my life that I chance, not yours!" Kait suddenly took a frightened step backwards when Danse stomped even closer to her.

Danse held his hands up close to her face but didn't touch her, "God dammit Kait! Why can't you see that I care about you?! It's actions like this that make me not even want to let you see the Elder again!"

Kait held her ground, "I know what I'm doing Danse and I'm sorry if I scare you; it's not my intentions! But you will not stop me from seeing Maxson again. Like I said, I'll do anything to convince him to give me more time."

Danse had lowered his hands but stayed close to her, "And that's what I'm afraid of."

Oh, Kait understood now. She knew her next words weren't the best but she spoke them anyways, "You're afraid that I'll fuck Maxson? That would work, wouldn't it? You know it would."

Kait's arms hurt when Danse grabbed her. She was shoved to sit on top of a short dresser and pushed back firmly against the wall. Danse was holding her with such force that she couldn't wiggle free.

"You will not do that," Danse ordered in a scary tone.

Kait tried to get free but the Paladin wasn't going to ease up any time soon. She angrily glared at him, "And who's going to stop me? You? I don't belong to you Danse-" Kait closed her eyes tightly when Danse roughly kissed her.

Danse pulled away from her but stayed close, "You are mine. I won't let anyone else have you."

He finally let go of her but quickly slammed his hands to the wall on each side of her when she tried to get up. Kait's face was flushed red from his lips but she placed her hands on Danse to shove him away but he was solid. Instead, she retorted, "Is this because of the other day?" She was talking about the kiss the other night before traveling to the Institute and she lied when she spoke; too angry for him to know the truth, "The only reason why I didn't shove you away is because it was so sudden. I didn't expect it, just like I didn't now."

Danse shook his head lightly as he stared into her blue eyes, "You kissed me first."

Kait immediately knew what he was talking about and rolled her eyes, "That doesn't count! I was high!" When she saw Danse's strong features become confused, she stated blandly, "I lied."

Danse was quiet for several long heartbeats before speaking, "So you remember everything?" When she nodded, he suddenly forced her legs open to stand in between them and to be much closer to her. He felt a rush of excitement flow through him when he saw how flustered she became from his actions. She acted like she didn't want him to touch her, but they both knew that was yet another lie.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Danse said in a low voice that sent a strong shiver of eagerness down her spine. He gripped onto her thigh tightly with one hand and slid her lower body to be against his, "I will persuade you one way or another to never risk your life pointlessly again."

Kait tried to shove him back again, "You can't order me around anymore-" her breath hitched in her throat when Danse brought his lips to her ear and spoke carefully, "You enjoy it when I order you around." Kait gripped Danse's shirt tightly when he rubbed his lower body roughly against hers, proving to her that he wanted her desperately, and she unwillingly let out a low moan from the excitement she felt herself.

"You told me," Danse started to refer to when she was high off of the HaluciGen drug, "that I like it when I get to lay my hands on you." He bit her lobe roughly, making her gasp from the sudden pain, "But I think you love it when I get rough with you. You want me to be."

Kait started to breath heavily and her body felt as though it was engulfed in flames. Danse was showing her a side that she never thought existed and she absolutely hated herself for loving every second of it. She could feel how ready he was to take her right there and honestly, she wanted it desperately. Feeling his hands roughly holding her, his hot breath on her ear and his demanding, strong, deep voice was seducing her far more than he realized.

Kait took a deep breath and moaned again when she felt his teeth on her ear again. "You can't change me Danse…," Kait panted lowly.

"I think I will," Danse stated with confidence. He finally let Kait go but he dropped her on one of the sleeping bags before moving on top of her. His strong hands moved her legs open again and he grabbed her wrists when she placed her hands on him again. He firmly pinned her hands above her head and looked down at her with lust burning in his eyes. "What do you want me to do to you?"

Kait felt helpless under his gaze and she wanted to be taken by him right then. She wanted him to do everything to her but her stubbornness fought back, "I don't want you to touch me."

Kait dropped her mouth open and moaned loudly when he gripped her wrists with one hand while taking his free hand to grab her between her legs.

"Don't lie to me," Danse ordered.

Kait couldn't take it anymore. Her heart was about to explode and her face was too hot and red to hide anything anymore from him. It had been too long since she's felt the touch of another and she wanted it to be nothing but Danse now to fill that void in her. "Take me," Kait panted in a flustered voice.

Danse had released her the moment she opened her mouth. Everything moved in a blur for Kait as he removed her pants with a fluid motion. He pushed her coat off of her shoulders before pulling her shirt off over her head then getting rid of any under garments she wore. Kait was exposed under the Paladin and her arms slid up his shirt to grip onto his muscular back while she closed her eyes. Danse had his hands on her thighs again and when he lowered his pants enough, he lifted her hips for a better angle before shoving every inch of himself as deep as he could within her, not even giving her a chance to adjust to him.

Kait threw her head back and moaned in both pain and pleasure. Her nails dug deep into his flesh when she felt him relentlessly thrust into her over and over without giving her a chance. Danse could feel her body trembling in his hands and he took her like an animal. He brought his lips to her neck and bit down on her flesh tightly, growling deeply when he forced another loud moan from her.

"Is this what you wanted?" Danse panted into her ear. He released a pained moan himself when Kait dragged her nails down his back intentionally to hurt him but he loved it. As long as it was Kait doing it to him, then he loved everything about it.

"Yes," Kait cried in incredible pleasure. Even through the pain he first caused her, he hit her deep with every thrust and hit her right; it was intoxicating and indescribable. What she felt was beyond what she needed.

Kait slid her hands high above her head when Danse leaned away from her, almost sitting up. He raised her hips to be up on his lap as he fucked her deeper at the better angle. The Paladin looked down at Kait and at her beautiful face. Her eyes were closed but her perfect lips were parted in a sweet moan. Her face was flushed a gorgeous red and her whole body rocked rhythmically to the motion of his movements. She was lost in the moment of lust and bliss and it was all because of him.

Kait started scratching the floor with her nails as she was losing control. She opened her eyes just to roll them back in pleasure. She finally looked up at Danse when she couldn't hold it anymore. "D-Danse….!" She threw her head back again, "Please don't stop!"

Danse couldn't waste the moment. He swiftly tossed his shirt off so his bare body could be against hers and he grabbed her face with one hand to make her look at him. He closed his lips to hers and slid his tongue quickly in her mouth as she reached her climax. He moaned deeply through their kiss as he felt her walls closing around him. He tried to hold her in the kiss but she had to break away to scream in pleasure during her orgasm. When she caught her breath, he crushed his lips to hers again and kissed her with such love and devotion. She was his and that would never change now.

Danse couldn't hold it anymore either. He pulled away from her and gripped one of her thighs tightly as he used his other arm to brace himself up. He tried to last as long as he could so the moment would never end but when he heard her moan one more time and call his name, he was over the edge. Kait felt every throb of him as Danse came in her. He was breathing heavily and his heart rate was going fast enough to make him dizzy. He finally stopped moving and stayed hovering over her.

Danse slowly looked down at Kait's face and she had her eyes closed tightly and her head turned away. She was used up and exhausted by how rough he had taken her. He tiredly slid his hand along her face and watched as she kissed the palm of his hand.

He realized that he loved her so much at that moment.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Kait had her pale, bare back to Danse as she slept on her side on a sleeping bag. When she stirred awake for the morning, the feeling of Danse touching her body was fresh on her mind and on top of that, she was sore.

Kait braced herself up by putting her hands on the ground behind her. When she took a deep breath, she could feel Nate's wedding ring slide to be between her breasts and once she realized that, everything from the previous night came crashing down on her in the worst waves of guilt she's ever felt.

"Oh god," Kait breathed and took her husband's ring in her hand. She looked back at Danse who was still asleep on his side, facing where Kait was just laying. He had his pants on but no shirt. Along his back, Kait could see the marks she put on him from her nails.

Kait looked ahead of her again and stood up quickly but quietly, trying not to wake the Paladin. She shakily wiped her eyes as they started to water while she gathered her scattered clothes and started dressing again. What had she done? How could she do that to Nate? She felt so sick to her stomach that she almost vomited.

"What have I done; what did I do?!" Kait mumbled to herself in a quick, panicked tone. "Nathan.. my sweet husband, please forgive me…." She was buttoning up her pants after she had just slid her shirt on when she heard the first signs of movement behind her.

"Kait?" Danse spoke softly. When Kait looked back at him, she knew that he had just woken up at that moment.

Danse looked into Kait's eyes and realized what was wrong immediately when she tore her gaze away from him and brought her hand to her face. He never considered the fact that she would regret what they did.

"W-we should get a move on." Kait tried to speak professionally but with the thickness in her voice, it was obvious that she was crying.

Danse was to his feet in a heartbeat as he retrieved his shirt and pulled it on. He approached her with deep concern and when he touched her shoulder gently, she flinched from his touch.

"Please don't…," Kait begged as she slid away from him. She shook her head and tried not to cry out loud but bursts would come out here and there. "I'm so fucking…. I'm such a whore…."

"Kaitlyn," Danse spoke with sympathy. "Don't do this to yourself. You did nothing wrong."

"I did everything wrong!" she cried and slapped her hands over her face in shame. She slid her nails roughly on her face as she pulled her hands away to make them fists, "I cheated on Nate… how could I do that? I love my husband… I told myself that I'd never move on..!"

Danse hated seeing her break down in front of him again, "You didn't cheat on him. …. He's… Kait, Nate's-"

"I know!" Kait yelled, not wanting to hear the words from Danse's mouth. "I know Nate's dead!" She gripped his ring in her hand tightly, "I'm fucking disgusting. I wish I died in the vault with him…."

Kait flinched again and hit the wall when she jumped away from his movement as he tried to touch her again. She didn't look at him and held her hand up, "Please Danse… please don't touch me right now."

Danse lowered his hand from her and made sure to stay his distance. "As you wish." He took a step back as she moved away from the wall to retrieve her coat and weapons before putting everything on.

Danse forced himself to look away from her. All he wanted to do was to pull her in his arms and tell her that everything was alright; he wasn't trying to replace her husband. His heart had tightened into an almost unbearable knot as seeing the regret line every inch of her face tore him apart. He picked up all of his gear before equipping it and finally glanced in Kait's direction when she spoke.

"Let's go." She spoke in almost a whisper.

They were back on the streets and didn't even bother to stop by the Cambridge Police Station. By now, they were about an hour away from the Prydwen and Kait spoke up for the first time since they left in the morning.

"How am I supposed to convince Maxson?"

Danse stopped walking; he was in front of her and she stopped too so she didn't get too close. He faced her, "I think I have an idea if all else fails."

Kait forced herself to make eye contact with him and when she did, she could see the hurt still lingering in his eyes, "R-really?"

Danse nodded and began walking again as he turned his back to her.

Kait watched him walk away and squeezed her hands into tight fists as she tried to think of what to say to him. "D-Danse.. wait." The Paladin stopped as soon as she told him to and looked back at her again.

Kait nervously messed with her fingers before finally just grabbing Nate's wedding ring, "I'm sorry if I hurt you. …. I'm not someone to get attached to and I'm sorry for how far things… for how far we went." Her hand closed tightly around the necklace when she thought of the night before.

Danse shook his head and looked off in the distance where they needed to go, "No. I'm sorry. My emotions and urges got the better of me." He looked down as if in shame, "I promise you that it'll never happen again. The last thing I wanted was to do this to you." He found her eyes when he heard her voice start to break again.

"Am I a horrible person?" Kait started to cry.

The pain returned to his chest as he sighed while shaking his head firmly, "No, of course not. It's only understandable to still love your husband."

Danse watched as she closed her eyes tightly while roughly rubbing her hand across her face. She started walking while she still covered her face and Danse slowly started to follow behind her.

Kait had sucked up all her problems as the airport was only a few minutes away and the magnificent Prydwen filled the sky. Upon walking through the first set of gates to the Brotherhood base, eyes turned on Kait but no one spoke to her. Danse stayed close behind her to show that she was being escorted and there would be no trouble.

"Take us up," Danse ordered an initiate stationed at the Vertibird. Without question, the member nodded and they were on the flight deck in no time.

Kait took the lead but staggered in her footsteps as Danse forced his way in front of her, as if saying that would be better. Danse opened the first doors to the interior of the Prydwen and Kait quickly caught sight of Maxson standing with his back to the entrance.

Her legs stopped moving as Kait got cold feet suddenly. Danse noticed her hesitation and looked back at her. She saw the look he gave her with his eyes and it told her that if she was going to go through with this, then she needed to now.

"Kait," Danse said carefully.

Kait took a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart as she nodded. She followed the Paladin as they walked into Maxson's throne room. She was already holding the strap to her sniper rifle nervously.

Maxson heard the two enter and glanced back casually, "Pala-" He suddenly silenced himself when he saw Kait with Danse. The Elder now fully faced them. "This is a surprise. I didn't think you'd show up."

"I did," Kait tried to stay calm, "as you asked; my end of the deal. I have the holotape-" she began digging through her bag but almost panicked when she couldn't find what she was looking for until Danse pulled it out of his pocket. She forgot that she gave it to him.

"Here you are Elder Maxson," Danse spoke with respect as he handed it over to Maxson.

"This is excellent," Maxson said as he turned over the holotape to examine it. He looked back up and Kait and noticed that something was off about her but spoke anyways, "I take it that this means you were successful?"

"I was." She answered.

Maxson nodded slightly but never took his eyes off of her. He was still highly displeased with her. "Why have you returned? Paladin Danse could have just told me this news himself."

Here she went. "I need to ask a favor of you," Kait started.

Maxson laughed lightly as if she told a joke but frowned when he saw how serious she was. "And what makes you think that I'd be willing to give you another favor? In fact, we should be preparing to march to your cozy little settlement for an invasion on the Institute."

Kait quickly spoke in return, afraid that she was running out of time before he called for her to be locked away again, "That's what I need to talk to you about. I need you to hold off please."

Maxson wasn't amused at all. "Excuse me?"

Kait's hands were trembling; she could tell. "I need a little more time. I'm not done yet."

Maxson was another word away from losing his temper, "That wasn't a part of our deal. I let you walk out of here after you made a fool of me and insulted me in front of my people and you expect me to give you more time? I don't think so. In fact, it's seeming to me more and more that you are actually working for the Institute. I should have you arrested and executed right now!"

"Maxson, wait!" Kait held her hands up in a pleading motion. "It's not like that. Just give me something else to do for you and I'll do it without question. I'm just begging you to give me a little more time."

Maxson stared into her eyes with a cold intensity as the whole room fell silent. "Danse," he finally spoke to the Paladin, which Danse then straightened up while being spoken to, "Leave us."

Kait quickly looked at the Paladin and Danse tried not to obviously return her gaze of worry. Masking his emotions too well, he nodded to the Elder but opened his mouth, "Yes Elder. But if I may say something?"

Maxson granted him permission and Danse continued, "Doctor Madison Li is in the Institute." Danse could see Maxson's interest get peaked, "Li won't cooperate with any one of us. Kait is a new face. Perhaps she can convince the doctor to return to us without having to resort to force."

Doctor Li? Kait knew her. She was the one who installed the Courser Chip in Kait's pip boy.

Kait saw Maxson's strong features relax as he evidently considered Danse's proposal. "You have a very valid point Paladin. Very well." Maxson motioned with his hand for Danse to leave which he did so after saluting to the Elder.

There were two guards stationed outside but Kait was now left alone with the Elder. Kait forced herself to look back into Maxson's eyes and he was back to his highly unhappy self.

"Again, I should execute you now." He said strictly.

"I'd appreciate it," Kait spoke lowly, "if you didn't."

"You think this is a joke?" Maxson suddenly stomped to her and grabbed her jaw to made her raise her head to fully look up at him. Kait grabbed Maxson's hand with both of hers as he squeezed her face roughly. He really was very strong. "I will only give you this chance if you tell me exactly why. What is so important that you would dare defy me again?"

Kait started to dig her nails in Maxson's hand but stopped herself. Fighting with him wouldn't be the best option, "I-I can't … Maxson-" she cringed as his grip tightened.

"Answer me," he spoke darkly. "Or I will put a bullet in you myself."

Kait knew he wasn't joking. "M-Maxson…," she really, really didn't want to tell him why. She didn't want everyone to know her life, especially not the man she grew to hate possibly the most. Her jaw started aching painfully, "It's… my son. My son, Shaun…."

Her words surprised him but he only lightened his grip by a notch, "So you lied then. You never were looking for a friend. …. Why should I believe you now?"

"Do I look like," Kait breathed out, "I'm lying to you?"

Maxson looked into her blue eyes for several long heartbeats before finally letting go of her. "Fine," he began, "what about him?"

Kait took a step away and rubbed her jaw, "He's still in there. … I saw him, I just never got the chance to get him out when I was there. I need more time to be able to do it." She was very careful not to mention that Shaun was the leader of the Institute. If she did, she knew that Maxson would care less and would kill him in cold blood anyways.

"Okay." He spoke with authority, "If I give you more time, then you will help the Brotherhood in any way that you can until you complete your task and give us what was promised. Seeing as we don't hire mercenaries to do our work for us, I am reinstating you to Knight." He spoke right as Kait opened her mouth to object, "Now don't think this gives you a free pass. We will watch you and if you give us any reason to doubt your loyalty, then you will never have another chance with us again. The Brotherhood will hunt you down."

Kait quickly spoke up, "I don't think-"

"Are you really questioning me right now?" Maxson was cold and harsh; pretty much terrifying.

Kait found herself locked in place, "No. …. Sir."

"Good," Maxson's voice was strong. "Enter the Institute again and seek out Doctor Madison Li. She was once with the Brotherhood and was a valuable asset to us. We are working on a project here that desperately requires her attention and so it is up to you to convince her in any way to come back to us. I know you can do it. You have that appeal on people."

 _Fuck_ , Kait thought to herself. This is not what she wanted but then again, what exactly was she expecting to come from this encounter? She never felt so weak with honest fear of death under a person's eyes before but with how serious Maxson was looking her down, she knew he was not joking around and she had to obey or he'd kill her without a second thought.

"I'm on it," Kait forcefully said, "Elder Maxson."


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Merry late Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a great one! All I need now to complete my Fallout collection is a lunchbox and the bobbleheads! ... that means that I got some pretty sweet Fallout merch. Aaaannd I love it.

Chapter 20

Kait had just left Maxson's room and descended to the lower deck of the Prydwen, or the main area. Eyes were on her at every turn and it was horribly awkward. She did nothing to harm the Brotherhood but after escaping the prison cell, they probably all viewed her as a traitor. She made it up to her bed and old footlocker and was grateful for it being the middle of the day, for there was hardly a soul up there with her.

The lock was busted on Kait's footlocker but she opened it anyways. She didn't keep much of her belongings there besides a few minor things like an old pistol that she'd never use anyways, a toboggan, and some junk.

"What he say?" Danse's voice suddenly sounded from behind her, causing her to jump a little.

Kait looked back at him before shutting her locker and standing. When she saw his eyes, it was obvious that he wanted to know more of what he _did_ instead of said.

"I'm a Knight again." Kait said as she averted her eyes away.

Danse was confused, "What?"

Kait shrugged, "He made me rejoin. But when I tried to protest, he made it clear that it wasn't up for debate. If I slip up anywhere then he'll kill me."

Danse was surprised by her verdict and frustrated with the Elder for his threat but a part of him was hopeful. He had hope that Kait would come around to the Brotherhood's beliefs but now, he also had reasons to be around her more.

"I have to get Doctor Li." Kait said. She opened the map on her pip boy as she started navigating through it but stopped as her finger hovered over the Institute.

"Danse…?" Kait asked softly before slowly looking up at him.

"What is it?"

Kait dropped her hand when she continued, "Did you plan for this? About asking Maxson for my help in retrieving Li?"

Danse was caught as he shrugged lightly, "It was an idea that I've had for a while."

"Did you know it'd turn out this way?" Kait asked.

The Paladin shook his head, "I didn't. But I'm glad you're okay."

Kait sighed and took a seat on her bed as she grabbed the edge of the mattress. "I don't understand you."

Danse furrowed his brow in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Kait rubbed the back of her head, "Why do you have to care so much? Have I not hurt you enough?"

Danse tried to casually answer, "You haven't hurt me."

"Don't lie please." Kait said as she looked at him. "I can see it in your eyes. I just don't know why it had to be me. I shouldn't even be here. I should be dead, along with Nate."

"Stop saying that," Danse ordered but with an easy tone. "I don't want to hear you talk like that anymore."

"Why not?" Kait argued. "Why does it even matter?"

"Because," Danse retorted quickly, "I lo-" He suddenly choked back his words and scratched at his stubble nervously as he looked away from her.

Kait stared at him with surprise and started to feel awkward herself.

"Just stay safe." Danse spoke lowly.

"Danse…," Kait began as she stood up but when she took a step closer to him, he turned his back to her and left the area.

Was he going to say love? Kait's chest tightened as she stood there alone and she covered her face with her hands. Why did he have to fall for her? Kait hurt when she thought about Danse. She tried to push him away and seeing him get hurt every time she did was enough to crush her. She only wanted Nate and Shaun back. She wanted her old life; the good days where everything was simple. To when the talk of war was nothing to worry over yet and where you never had to fear being shot once you stepped outside the comfort of your home. She didn't need Danse to love her because if he swooped her off her feet and promised to take her away from all her troubles, she would let him do so.

"Life is cruel," Kait breathed in her hands before she returned her attention to her pip boy and found the Institute again on her map. With one touch, light flashed around her and she was gone.

Danse had gotten a new suit of power armor finally and was down in the hanger with Ingram inspecting it with pride.

"We've upgraded the defenses as much as we could," Ingram said. "If something happens and and suit won't open up, there is an emergency latch on the side here," she regarded a well hidden switch on the side of the suit.

"Great," Danse said with a nod. He turned his attention elsewhere when Maxson joined.

"Paladin Danse," Maxson began. "I would like to speak with you. Alone."

Danse wasn't expecting what came, "Of course sir."

Kait was in the Institute again. As she looked around her, the feeling was too unfamiliar. She was in the open court yard with all of the citizens going about their lives. Behind her she knew was where the Advanced Systems were with Doctor Li but ahead of her was where Shaun was. While she was away from the rest of the world, she only wanted to worry about her own.

The last door slid open and Shaun was sitting at a desk, reading something on his terminal. He turned his head when he heard someone enter and his eyes widened when he saw who was there.

"Mother?" Shaun said with surprise. Kait closed her eyes for a few seconds. Hearing his voice was not something she was used to. Especially him referring to her as his mom.

"Hey Shaun." Kait said lowly as she walked in.

Shaun had rose from his chair and began approaching her, "It's great to see you again."

He was stopped right in front of her and Kait just looked into his eyes for the moment of silence they held. He was tall, just like his father. Old age had him but she could imagine that he was just as handsome as Nate was in his youth. Shaun had light blue eyes, just like Kait. He really was her lost son.

Kait raised her hand and gently laid it on her son's face. "I can't believe it's you Shaun."

Shaun smiled. He had a smile just like Nate's. "I take it that you've calmed down now?"

Kait removed her hand and nodded awkwardly, "Yeah. I suppose so. This is still so much to take in."

Shaun nodded with understanding, "I will give you all the time you need. But what's brought you back here?"

Her answer was a lie. She couldn't tell Shaun that she was here to convince one of his scientists to leave to work with the enemy. If she told him how she was in a bad situation then she was sure he'd offer her safety in the Institute but if she hid, what would happen to her friends and everyone she's ever come across? Maxson would level the Commonwealth over her betrayal. She couldn't live with that burden and besides, she didn't know if she really trusted the Institute, regardless of it being run by her very own son. There have been too many bad things that had happened because of the boogeyman to where she had to be uncomfortable around them.

"I came to see you."

The sun was an hour away from setting and the sight of that fact was seen from the Prydwen's windows. Danse was standing in Maxson's throne room waiting for the Elder to speak while his back was to the Paladin.

"You've changed Danse." Maxson said calmly but there was something almost hostile about his demeanor.

Danse grew increasingly uncomfortable, "How so, Elder?"

"You're growing too fond of the Knight," he answered. Maxson now looked at Danse to see if anything was given away on his face but Danse was an expert at hiding his true emotions.

"You're too soft on Kait." Maxson continued. "I will agree that you had a very good idea to have her retrieve Li but you would never try to help out someone who was near becoming an enemy of the Institute before. Is there now something between the two of you that I don't know about?"

Danse held his ground and spoke firmly and professionally, "No sir. Of course not. I will admit that, even though she's made it clear that she doesn't wish to be here, she has been nothing but a tremendous help ever since she's joined us. She worked every day on the teleporter until it was completed and she completed one of the tasks she said she would immediately. She told me first that she needed to speak with you about her request and so I just thought of yet another thing she could do to help us."

Maxson was silent as if he were processing Danse's words. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, he nodded, "You're right. Perhaps I was wrong in my actions before. I feared that she would take what she wanted from us and betray us as soon as she had the chance to. Maybe my fear just got the better of me. She has been nothing but help and, if I have to admit myself, there is something very alluring about her. She stands out but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that. I overhear countless initiates talk about her in that way. Even the squires look up to her and her personality."

Danse didn't know the right way to respond to what the Elder was saying so instead he just nodded to agree. Before Maxson dismissed him, the Elder spoke again.

"But I am still keeping an eye on her and my word still stands. If she does slip up and I feel that she has betrayed us or is about to, then I will order for her to be hunted down and executed." He looked in Danse's eyes, "And I expect you to carry out that order. Is that clear Paladin?"

 _Never_ , Danse thought. He would never kill Kait. Not even Maxson could get him to pull the trigger on the one person who had opened up a whole new world for him. Danse played the soldier and saluted, "Yes Elder Maxson."

Kait's book was open as she and Shaun were sitting at a desk together. In it, she had stuffed a lot of the pictures she had drawn within. She found the one that she drew of herself and Nate holding an infant Shaun.

"Wow," Shaun breathed as he picked the picture up, "I never knew you had such a talent." He smiled broadly, "I suppose this is as close as we get to baby pictures."

"Afraid so," Kait said with a smile of her own. "Unfortunately, all the others got burned up with the rest of the world."

"Such a tragedy that is," Shaun said with a seriousness in his voice. He placed the drawing down and started flipping through the rest. He finally settled on one of Danse after he had looked through a few of the Paladin already. "Who is this?"

Kait looked down at the picture of Danse and a sadness started taking over her again but she stayed strong, "He's a friend. On the surface."

"You sure draw this friend a lot," Shaun commented. He gave Kait a sideways smile to show he was teasing her but she nervously slid her drawings together in one big pile.

"It's nothing like that," Kait lied. She tried not to think of Danse but it was all that really flooded her mind all day. She thought of when they first met. She hated his guts and she was sure that he hated hers as well and then they surprisingly became friends. It wasn't long before he kissed her- oh how nice his lips felt and how sweet he held her during their moment. Now, they had got from there to sleeping with each other. Kait didn't plan that and she hated the thought of being with another man but when Danse had her, when he spoke to her, when he touched her, and when he kissed her, she only could think of him and how she only wanted him. Kait mentally punched herself. She couldn't be falling for Danse. Could she?

"Anyways," she was desperate to change the subject to anything, "How did you come to lead the Institute?"

Shaun went off explaining how they needed a pure body, one free of any radiation, to lead the Institute and how Kait was the next choice if Shaun failed which was why Kellogg had called her the backup. The Institute was the last hope humanity had to rebuild the Commonwealth to make it become the world they it once was through the technology of human-like synths. When he asked her to join him in his cause, Kait expressed too much discomfort for him to realize that she still wasn't ready.

"Please just give it some thought." Shaun begged. "You should at least meet the other head directors here since you exited as soon as you could the last time you were here."

"Alright." Kait agreed. She stood up from the table and gave Shaun a kind smile before leaving to return to the rest of the Institute. There, she met the other directors in each department, leaving Doctor Li for last. As soon as she entered the room, she knew she had to be prepared to do some convincing.

Night had swept the Commonwealth and Maxson was leaving his window room to return to his bedroom. He halted suddenly when he noticed bright flashes light up behind him and he turned quickly to the source.

As soon as the lights were gone, Kait stood on the other side. "It's done." She informed.

It only took Maxson a second to know what she was talking about, "Where is she?"

"She insisted," Kait began, "that she leave on her own. She needs to be very careful about it and she's making sure the Institute doesn't know that I was the cause of her departure." She bowed her head to the Elder, "She'll be here very soon though."

Maxson was pleasantly surprised by her words, "That's great news Knight. Congratulations."

Kait raised her head again, obviously cautious in the Elder's presence, "I did as you asked. I swear I didn't sabotage anything. Everything went as planned."

The Elder eyed her, "I wasn't questioning you."

Kait didn't look at him, "I'm just letting you know. I know I walk on thin ice around here so even I have to be careful. I won't leave the Prydwen until she arrives just to prove myself."

Maxson was silent at first but finally nodded, "Very well. I appreciate your loyalty."

Kait just nodded and began walking. As she almost got past him, he began walking with her.

"I have to apologize," Maxson began, "for how things ended between us." They were on the lower deck now, "I feared that you were going to run and betray us so I had to lock you up."

"Well," Kait decided to speak up as they were nearing the dining area, "I was going to run but I never planned on betraying anyone." She took a seat at a corner table and the Elder sat with her even though she wished that he would just leave her company.

"Why would you run?" Maxson questioned her.

Kait took out her book with a blank sheet of paper. It had been so long since she's drawn anything. As she put the first line on the paper, she replied, "The Brotherhood is not really for me. I survived one war already and I don't really want to live in another one. I just wanted to run away somewhere to be alone with my son. I wasn't going to tell any secrets or run to the enemy. I wanted to live in isolation."

Maxson wanted to understand her reasoning but he didn't. He was the natural born soldier and fighting for his country and beliefs was all he knew so anything different was wrong to him. "As long as your loyalty lies with us, then we'll be okay." He stopped his started departure when he saw that she was drawing the Prydwen. "What are you doing?"

"Drawing." Kait stated in almost a smart-ass tone. "It would be for you, if you want this when I'm done."

"Me?" he asked.

Kait nodded, "For what you've done for me. You gave me a second chance and I really am grateful for that. Drawing is my way of giving gifts."

Maxson wasn't expecting her gratitude but nodded anyways, "Alright Knight. I'll accept it when you're finished."

Kait let out a held in breath of anxiety when Maxson finally left her. She had survived an encounter with the Elder where he didn't actually touch her. She was there for about an hour when she finally finished and she slid the picture in her book on the top. She drew the airport with the Prydwen floating magnificently overhead with the bright, Commonwealth sun shining overhead and a flag with the Brotherhood of Steel logo clearly in focus on a building.

She got up to retire to her bed. She showered first to finally get clean and she passed through the power armor hanger while returning to her barracks. Once in the room, she could hear someone working on a suit. Kait turned the corner and saw Danse with his back to her working a leg of the thick armor. As she watched him for several heartbeats, she finally decided that she needed to apologize to him. She was a horrible person for hurting him the way she did.

Danse patted his hand to the floor as he reached back for a wrench but looked back when his fingers only felt the floor. His head tilted upwards when Kait stood over him with the tool he sought in her hands. Her short black hair was spiky due to it still being wet and from a towel having been run over it a few times.

"Thanks," Danse said slowly as he took the wrench from her. She had been gone all day and he left her standing alone after he walked away from her. He wished he at least said goodbye. "I didn't know you were back."

"Yeah," Kait sighed as she took a seat next to him. She noticed that he shifted away from her slightly. "I've been back for about an hour."

Danse returned to his work on his power armor as he tried to keep things on a professional level, "How did it go?"

Kait watched him work and still had no idea what he was doing, "Well. Li will be here within the next few days." When Danse nodded, Kait ran one of her hands roughly through her hair and she pushed her black bangs back, "Danse, I'm sorry."

"For what?" he still didn't look at her.

"For," she paused just to make sure they were alone, "acting how I did. It was wrong."

"What are you-" Danse was cut off when he felt Kait grab his shoulder impatiently.

"You know what I'm talking about." Kait spoke strictly, "I was wrong to act the way I did. What we… what we did was because of both of us. I acted like an idiot and I didn't mean to hurt you over that. I can never stop loving Nate but to be honest, I wanted it just as bad as you did. I'm an adult and I don't regret being with you."

Danse was surprised but shook his head as he removed her hand from him, "This isn't the best place to talk about this Kait."

"Then," she spoke with determination, "let's find a place."

Danse shook his head again, "There isn't a place. If we get caught sneaking off somewhere then Maxson will be displeased. He doesn't need to know about us or anything that's happened."

Kait looked at the floor ahead of her and understood his reasoning, "You're right. Sorry again."

"Please don't apologize." Danse requested. "We will discuss everything when we have the chance but all I want right now is for you to forgive me." He didn't expect her to then grab his hand sweetly.

"I never was mad at you," Kait said softly. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze when she hesitantly asked, "Do you really care that much? Or did we only…. Did you only want it because the opportunity was there?"

"I wanted you," Danse said clearly as he squeezed her hand back now. He looked into her eyes with determination as Kait now grew nervous and bashful under his gaze. "And I meant it when I said that you're mine. I don't want anyone else to have you."

Kait had put her hand on her face without thinking. Her cheeks were too hot and she felt uncomfortable but in a satisfying way; she liked it when Danse was confident even if it made her feel weak around him.

She wasn't the girl to swoon over any man who showed interest. In fact, she was the girl who always told men to fuck off when they pursued her unless she had some interest in return. She remembered the first time she saw Nate. She was in Law School on campus when a military bus showed up. The president of the college was throwing a ceremony to honor the soldiers who had fought for their country. It was like a fairy tale when Nathan stepped off of the bus. Several students were standing around as the soldiers unloaded from the bus and Kait, with long black hair at the time, had joined in the crowd just out of curiosity. Nate's eyes drifted over the students and found Kait staring right back at him.

Danse had the same color eyes; lightness and all. The exact same shade. Kait remembered the first time Nate kissed her. She was twenty two at the time. She had kissed past boyfriends before but nothing was ever like Nate. He had asked her out on a date after the ceremony. He took her to a park; not knowing her interests yet. As the moon rose overhead, Nate had told her that she spilled something on her sleeve. When Kait looked to see what he had indicated, he surprised her with a kiss when she looked back up at him. She remembered the feel of her fingers along his jaw and stubble. It felt just like Danse's face. She had never felt that feeling again until Danse had kissed her. Nathan was dead and Kait didn't want to accept that but she knew that she had to. She never wanted to move on but everytime she saw Danse, she felt like she had to be around him even when she hated him. He was protective and honest and Kait couldn't get him out of her head.

"I will give you time," Danse said, breaking her thoughts. "But in the meantime, please do everything you can to stay on the Brotherhood's good side."

Kait understood but knew that he was following his words with a reason she was unaware about, "Why?"

Danse's eyes said it first and Kait couldn't help but feel the familiar, growing hatred towards the Elder.

"I was asked to kill you," Danse said with a faint pain in his voice, "if you did anything to be against us. Don't put me in that situation."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

It took three days for Li to show up. In the meantime, Kait trained with the others in the airport. Her training consisted of cardio, hand-to-hand combat, shooting, and basic survival tactics. She was a thousand times better at hand-to-hand fighting now that she had been doing it for three days straight.

Kait deflected a fist in her direction and quickly blocked an incoming kick that immediately followed. She grabbed the other Knight's leg and twisted it, forcing the female to turn with it and lose her balance. As the Knight hit the ground, Kait forced the woman on her stomach before pinning her arms behind her back.

"Good job," the Knight grunted with a smile as Kait held her down. Kait let go of her but the Knight suddenly kicked Kait's feet out from under her and dropped her on her back. The Knight jumped on her and acted as though she had a knife in her hand and was about to stab Kait in the chest but the survivor reacted by grabbing her arms to stop her.

The two struggled with power and Kait kneed the Knight roughly in the side to stagger her enough to get her boot on her stomach. Kait kicked the Knight back and was on her feet before her opponent was. The Knight's wrist was caught by Kait and twisted to be behind her back. Kait forced the female to stay down on her knees as she pretended to handcuff her now.

"Do I win?" Kait asked in a pant.

"I think so," the Knight acknowledged.

Kait was smiling broadly. That was honestly the first time she had won and she would openly admit that it felt good. The Knight saluted to her before walking off.

Kait wiped the sweat off her brow as she looked in the distance at the other Brotherhood initiates working on a giant mech thing with Proctor Ingram and Madison Li overseeing the project. Apparently the iron giant was called Liberty Prime and it was used sometime ago to destroy an organization that rivaled the Brotherhood with technology called the Enclave. Kait hated the sight of it. It was just another thing that the Brotherhood would use to drop the Commonwealth to its knees.

She heard the arrival of a squad all fully clad in power armor enter the airport and Kait turned to them. Even with the helmet on, she knew the leader was Danse. They were better now. They still never discussed what happened but at this point, they didn't really need to. Kait was happy to be friends again with Danse and she knew that he was too. Even so, her heart still beat far more at the sight of him than it should for a just a friend.

"Paladin Danse!" Kait called as she jogged up to the group. The other three left him as Danse stayed put for Kait.

"Knight." Danse said casually behind his helmet.

Kait was still boasting silently to herself over her victory. "Fight me."

She couldn't see his face, but Danse furrowed his brows, "What?"

Kait was eager to start and bound around him. Before the Paladin could turn, power was lost to his suit as she forced the fusion core out. The suit popped open in a hiss and Danse stepped out.

"What are you doing?" he demanded but not in an angry tone.

Kait tossed him his fusion core back, "Train with me. Come on!"

Danse exhaled as he put the fusion core back in his suit before returning his attention to her, "I just got back. I'm exhausted, therefore I won't be at my best."

Kait grinned and laughed lightly when she spoke, "I know. That's exactly why I'm challenging you now. Maybe I'll have a chance."

Danse rolled his eyes with amusement as he couldn't hold a serious expression at her. "Fine."

They walked into a more open area of the airport and Kait took her stance first. Danse immediately grabbed her fist as she threw it at him but she then lifted her knee to strike him in the side. Danse used his leg to stop hers and when she spun, putting her back to him as she went to elbow him with her free arm, he locked his arm with her striking one and had her pinned in his grip.

Before Danse could comment, he was genuinely shocked when she threw her body forwards, lifting his weight on her back before she threw him over her and onto his back on the ground. Being so surprised by her move, he didn't even stop her when she dropped to her knees by him and slammed her fist down on his chest as if she stabbed him with a combat knife.

"Boom!" Kait cheered happily.

Danse quickly sat up and turned to her, "That was impressive. I didn't expect you to do that."

Kait's smile was so wide, "Were you underestimating your enemy, Paladin?"

Danse honestly nodded, "I was and I apologize for that."

Kait shook her head as if she was disappointed in him while she stood. "Such a shame."

Danse looked up at her face and damn, all he wanted to do was grab her and kiss her so hard right then but he stood up and stayed his ground instead. "Let's go again."

Kait bowed mockingly to him, "As you wish sir."

"Stop that," Danse said with a smile. This time, he struck first, not with his full force, but enough to stagger her. She wasn't ready by his attack and just barely stepped out of the way but he swung again. Kait held her arms up and blocked his attack then retaliated quickly by swinging a punch in his direction. Danse grabbed her fist but she twisted her hand to slide it out of his before he could try to pin her again.

Danse tripped her feet out from under her and as soon as she hit the ground, she quickly rolled away to have the chance to regain her posture. The two exchanged throws and deflects back to back until Kait had slipped up and he caught her again. Danse did as he's done in the past and kicked her legs, forcing her knees to hit the ground as he grabbed her arms. Kait used all her strength as she swiftly twisted her body, forcing his grip to slip and for her to get free. She turned while she remained low and used her leg to swipe his feet. When Danse almost caught himself, Kait shot herself up and hit him with her shoulder to push him the rest of the way.

Kait had lost her balance as well and caught herself by quickly placing her hands on Danse's warm chest as she accidently straddled him while they both fell.

Danse was on his back and leaned his head up to rub the back of it. He failed to realize that he was holding Kait's thigh firmly in his other hand.

"You just keep moving, huh?" Danse laughed lightly.

"Does this make this a second win against you?" Kait smiled.

Danse stopped rubbing his head and found himself relaxing with her on top of him as he smiled warmly up at her, "I suppose so. But I'll blame it on my fatigue."

"Excuses!" Kait laughed. Danse let out a soft laugh with her and the two found one another staring at each other. Danse's eyes fell to her lips as he watched her tongue ever so slightly wet them. As he slowly looked back up to her eyes, he could see redness placed gently across her cheeks and her eyes revealed a nervousness that he found to be irresistible. He wanted to kiss her to the point where he almost couldn't control himself.

The two suddenly noticed the position they were in and Kait jumped away from Danse as if he threw a bucket of spiders on her. She stepped far enough away from him and rubbed any dirt off of her pants before bowing her head to him. "U-uhm, thank you for training with me Paladin Danse."

"Anytime," Danse responded as he stood now too.

"Hey!" Proctor Ingram's voice sounded in the area. Kait shot her head in Ingram's direction as the Proctor was leaning over the railing to the platform she was on looking at the two. "You two break it up and get over here!"

Kait gave Danse a worried look but the one he returned told her not to worry about what was witnessed. Ingram seemed to not be bothered by Kait and Danse's sometimes obvious relationship that they tried hard to conceal. The two walked to the area where Liberty Prime was being constructed and Danse questioned after inspecting their progress.

"How's it coming along?"

"Good," Ingram said but she sighed while she spoke, indicating the opposite of what she said.

"The joints won't work," Doctor Li informed. "We need a high-powered magnet to progress."

"Where would we get one of those?" Kait asked.

"I believe," Ingram answered, "that you can find one at Milton General Hospital. We need to construct four electromagnetic actuators, one for each joint, from the high-powered magnet. It'll make his joints work."

"And you need me to find it?" Kait said.

"Of course Knight," Ingram said. "I've already assembled a team to go with you. They should be here shortly." Before Danse could insist on going too, Ingram continued, "And Danse, Elder Maxson has another assignment for you. You should go see him immediately."

Danse nodded and gave Kait a quick look as he had to walk away. Kait wished the Paladin could assist her but knew that she could handle the task just fine with others.

Kait quickly gathered everything she needed before meeting her team at the airport entrance. There was a female Paladin in power armor, another male Knight, and the same scribe that Kait had saved a long time ago during the raiders with power armor trouble.

"Hey!" The scribe said happily. "It's been a while."

Kait smiled back at her, "Yeah it has. It's nice to see you."

The four departed immediately. It was a few hours before they found the hospital that they needed and clearing the enemies within wasn't a problem at all. They found the magnet they sought on the third floor and the scribe with them secured it.

With a job well done, the team began to return to the Prydwen. They only left the hospital ten minutes prior to where they were now when the air suddenly started turning thick with green clouds.

Kait looked to the sky as her throat already started to burn. "We need to find shelter," she said. "Quickly." The first crack of thunder boomed in the air as well and everything immediately felt heavier as the radiation storm started.

The Paladin in armor had nothing to worry about but she still moved with haste for her comrades. Kait's eyes started to water and she tried not to keep them open as much as she mainly just followed the footsteps she heard. Every time the thunder would boom, her skin felt like it was about to burn and peel off from the thick radiation dancing along her flesh.

"There's a building up ahead!" The Paladin yelled. Within a few minutes, the four busted through the door to the sweet shelter on the other side. The Paladin shut the door behind them as the other three caught their breath and took a healthy dose of rad-away to calm their illness.

Kait ran a hand along her face as her skin felt sunburnt from the storm. She was glad that they finally reached shelter.

"Let's not go out there for a while," the scribe sighed.

"Agreed," the male Knight said.

Kait didn't comment and looked around the building they were in. She looked down at her pip boy and examined the map to see where they were. They had traveled away from the Prydwen but not by much so they were okay still. They just needed to wait for the storm to pass before continuing on. Kait suddenly shot her head up to the others and spoke after a moment, "Did one of you say something?"

The others looked at Kait in confusion and shook their head. At that moment, a vague unison of voices was heard and all of the four heard it now.

"We're not alone," the Paladin said lowly. When they listened, they heard the other voices say something along the lines of ' _For the forged!_ '.

"Raiders?" Kait asked in a whisper as she took her sniper in her hands.

"Probably," the Knight said.

Kait led the way as they crouched and began moving silently through the hallways to the other beings in the building. Kait slowed to a halt before a doorway and slowly looked around the corner. Her eyes widened as she saw how many others were in the next room. Possibly thirty raiders or whatever stood in the open room and on top of their cultists ranting, cries were heard. Kait's heart skipped a beat when she saw three girls tied up on the ground and one male. The women screamed as one wrapped in barbed wire and metal stepped to the only male hostage and kicked him hard while he was on the ground before putting several bullets in him.

Kait quickly looked at the other with her. They didn't see what she did but they definitely heard it.

"We have to stop them," the Paladin said. The others nodded but Kait quickly added, "There's a lot of them though. We're outnumbered."

"But we can't just leave them!" The scribe said in a hushed tone.

Kait agreed but they didn't know how to approach their situation. Kait felt sick when she heard the sudden sound of clothes ripping and one of the girls crying.

"Fuck it," Kait said and she turned the corner. She saw the sick bastard who tried to force himself on the helpless victim and shot him right away, having his head explode on the others behind him watching.

"What the fuck was that?!" A few of them yelled. Guns were in their direction and Kait quickly popped out to take another shot, killing another. The war had started and Kait retreated to be farther back down the hallway as the Raiders poured around the corner but as soon as they did, the Brotherhood cut them down easily as they ran into the hallway like lambs to slaughter.

Kait was by another doorway and saw as a few started sprinting down that hallway to her. She shifted ninety degrees to face the new targets and picked them off one-by-one with her sniper. She was so focused on the new direction she guarded that she didn't notice that one got through by another doorway and grabbed the scribe immediately.

The scribe yelled and was forced to drop her gun. The raider had her by the throat and dragged her into the room with the other raiders and she screamed for help. The other three Brotherhood initiates panicked when she was gone and that was enough for them to fail in their defenses.

Kait got grabbed from behind now too and watched as the Raiders poured in the hallway and jumped the other two. The Paladin in power armor held up the best but they flooded her like moths drawn to the light. Her fusion core was removed in an instant and the raiders dragged her out of the suit. Kait struggled with her attacker and managed to get free from the man's grasp. She kicked the man to the ground and took her revolver out to end his pathetic life in a heartbeat.

Kait turned to the others now and saw as they had the Paladin pinned down and tied up quickly while they beat the other Knight half to death. Kait fired the other five shots she had to kill some off but there was still so many left. She gasped in fear as she watched the raiders fill the male Knight with countless bullets, killing him instantly.

"Oh god," Kait shakily breathed. The raiders looked at her now as she was the only free one and she had to run. Kait ran through as many rooms as she could before finally opening her pip boy. She thought about going to the Institute but the thought of abandoning the others made her feel sick to her stomach. Instead, she moved quickly and sent out a distress signal as soon as a bag got thrown over her head. Kait kicked and screamed as a few men dragged her to the ground and she felt hands all over her as they restrained her so tightly that the ropes cut into her skin. She struggled until a horribly hard force hit her head and she was out immediately.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

When Kait first came to, she couldn't see anything and breathing was hard as she felt the material of the burlap sack touching her lips every time she opened her mouth to try to take a deep breath of air. She could tell that her body was bent awkwardly backwards and the surface she laid on was soft yet boney. Her spine hurt as she had her back bent across the beast that was obviously a brahmin. All around her, she could hear the non-stop chatter of idiots going on about stupid topics, and sometimes disturbing ones.

Her wrists hurt and she could tell that blood was drawn from where she was tied up but she couldn't struggle from how well they had her tied down. Instead, she worried about how strongly she was lacking air and she quickly started feeling hazy again. She closed her eyes again and didn't wake up again until later.

The loud crashing of a metal prison cell door slamming shut made Kait jolt awake. She was laying on a hard, cold floor that reeked of dirt, sweat, and old blood. Kait slowly pushed herself up, her wrists screaming in pain from the pressure. The first thing that she noticed was that her pip boy was gone and then every bit of her weapons and even all of her bobby pins.

Kait looked around her and the cell she was in had no light besides what shined in from the outside. In there with her were eight other females and the sight of them made Kait widen her eyes. Their ages ranged from about fifteen to thirty-something. She saw the scribe lying unconscious a few feet from her but the other seven cowered against the far end of the cell. All of them were nothing but bones and their skin was a permanent bruised hue. They all showed obvious signs of being tortured and they all wore serious burn injuries. Kait didn't have to wonder why there were only females. These sick bastards were gathering sex slaves.

"My god…," Kait breathed out in disbelief. "H-how long….," Kait tried to speak but she didn't know what words to say.

One girl shook her head shakily, "T-they've had u-us for… for about s-s-six months now…. M-maybe.. seven. I-I lost track a-a while ago…."

Kait was speechless and terrified. Was she going to end up like them too? Behind them on the wall were bloody scratches. It appeared that they've tallied the days with their fingernails. Kait wanted to puke. How could people become so fucking twisted and demented that they were beyond humanity? Being slowly ripped apart by a Deathclaw or poisoned by a Radscorpion had to have been a better fate than this. Kait wasn't going to let this happen to her and she promised to have it stop for the girls already unfortunate enough to become victims.

Kait was shaking and she tried to calm herself but that was impossible. She looked out through the bars and it looked like they were in a massive penitentiary. Out in the prison hallways were several fire lit barrels lining every so feet as if it was a lit up cathedral hall. Kait made herself stand and staggered towards the door and grabbed the bars to look out to the rest of the place. There was so much more of the prison that she couldn't see but she could tell that she was on the second floor and it looked like there was maybe three more over her. On the ground floor was a massive fire pit with several of the raiders partying around it.

"Who are these people?" Kait asked as she looked out into the open.

"T-they," the same girl spoke up, "call themselves t-the Forged. They b-b-believe that the f-fire c-cleanses you."

Kait shook her head with disgust. She still couldn't believe it. Something suddenly popped in her mind as she quickly turned around to face the girls. The scribe was with her but where was the Paladin? "Are there others?" Kait asked.

A few of the girls nodded and another one spoke, "There are about fifty more and hundreds of them."

Kait looked to the floor for a while. How in the hell were the they going to escape? Kait now moved to be by the scribe's side and she shook her awake.

"Hey," Kait called carefully. "Wake up."

The scribe shifted and slowly opened her eyes. When she saw Kait, she was almost relieved until she saw the rest of the area she was in. The scribe almost screamed in fear and Kait did everything in her power to calm her. Needing to know what she was up against, Kait told her everything about the situation they were in.

An intercom came to life as a voice spoke to everyone.

"Who's ready to be blessed by the sweet fire? Who will prove themselves worthy to meet our God?"

Kait looked up and out into the rest of the prison area, "What the fuck is he talking about?"

The girls who had been there long enough started to shake and cry in pure fear, "I-it's a test. Whoever makes it gets o-one step closer to the forge.."

"Makes it where?" Kait asked. "Why would we fight for that?"

The girls were practically convulsing, "I-if you don't, then they kill you. If you f-fail, they only end your life faster."

"Ready," the voice spoke again. "Set," the girls behind Kait rose to their feet and so did the scribe next to her. "Go my angels! Run run run!"

The cell doors slammed open and so many people ran out into the halls. The girls in the room with Kait pushed past her and the scribe, desperate to make it to wherever and Kait and the scribe quickly joined them.

Kait was out in the halls and followed the hoard. As they ran to the next area of the prison, Kait saw several Forged step out from cells and snatch girls left and right, forcing them to be unable to make it to the goal. With all the hectic movement, an eery tick of a timer was being played over the intercom, letting them know that they had a time limit.

Kait felt someone grab her arm and she elbowed the man as soon as he touched her, getting free right away. Ahead of them was a large cell block that the girls seemed to stop in. The timer was going faster and Kait was almost out of time. Beside her, the scribe tripped from the crowd but Kait slid to a halt to grab her.

"Come on!" Kait yelled and yanked the scribe to her feet. Kait shoved her and forced her to fall in the cell ahead of them before she slipped herself in, getting only her coat caught as the gate slammed shut and the timer screamed over the mic.

Kait pulled her coat free and watched with a broken heart as the few girls who didn't make it screamed from the horror while the Forged stepped out and dragged the girls away. The door behind them opened and several men stood there. They motioned for the survivors to move and they were then escorted to their next area. This area looked like a ritual site as a hot pool of molten metal was in the center. The girls were separated into different cells and Kait remained luckily with the scribe.

Her eyes were locked on the men as they dragged nine girls around the forge on the ground. A man on an upper level, probably the leader, looked down at them.

"These failures need to be cleansed!" The man boomed, "free them!"

Kait noticed the scribe standing right beside her as they both held onto the bars so tight that their knuckles were white. The girls below were dropped to their knees and a man approached each of them, all holding buckets filled to the top with the hot metal.

"Oh no…," Kait exhaled in horror. One of the girls, Kait noticed and she knew that the scribe noticed too, was the Paladin of their squad. Kait's hand slammed over her mouth as the men slowly poured the buckets on the girls' heads. Kait couldn't watch. She slid down to her knees with one hand still holding onto the bars as the worst cries of agony echoed throughout the halls of the penitentiary.

Kait was crying. She couldn't help it. She gagged as she couldn't watch what was happening. The scribe next to her dropped down to her knees too but the look in her eyes let Kait know that she was broken.

Danse had returned to the Prydwen after completing the list of tasks that Maxson had laid out for him. He walked out into the kitchen area, expecting Kait to be sitting where she always does; she and her squad should be back by now.

His heart dropped when her seat was empty. As soon as he started wondering where she was, he noticed a few initiates sprint as fast as they could down the hall and climb the ladder to the upper deck. Curious, Danse followed.

"It's coming from the Boston Penitentiary." a male scribe said to Maxson with urgency.

Danse was slowly walking towards Maxson's window room as he listened to what they told the elder.

"A distress signal?" Maxson questioned.

The scribe nodded before he continued, "Yes. But it's not like the others. We believe that it's from Knight Kait's pip boy."

Danse's eyes went wide as he entered the conversation, "What?!"

Maxson looked at the Paladin and appeared worried himself, "They should have been back hours ago. Something has happened."

Danse was sick to his stomach with worry. What had Kait gotten herself into? He hoped that it wasn't anything too bad.

"Paladin," Maxson spoke firmly, "gather who you can. We're heading out immediately."

Danse saluted, "Yes Elder."

It was night time. It had to be. Some of the girls were asleep and the scribe with Kait just stared at the floor. Kait didn't even think she blinked since witnessing what they did. She watched as one girl started scratching the stone wall over and over until a mark started to form. Kait assumed that every cell was tallied. It was the one last way the girls could communicate with each other.

Kait almost dozed off somehow but was instantly awake by the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Ah," a Forged breathed as he looked into their cell with wide, excited eyes. "Here's the Brotherhood ladies." There were two guys standing there. Their eyes cast over the scribe and saw how she was already gone and their interests weren't peaked. When they made contact with Kait's cold, blue eyes, their grins widened.

"I want that one," one said. Kait's eyes widened as the two's eyes never left her. Her body tensed and she found herself on her feet ready to defend herself as the cell door opened.

"Back the fuck off!" Kait yelled as she took a step back. The two men came in and Kait quickly hit the first one in the face and kicked the other hard in the sensitive area to get them to back off. She wasn't ready when they surprisingly recovered quickly and each grabbed an arm.

"Get off me!" Kait screamed. She tried to struggle and every time she'd get an arm free, they'd just grab her again. They must be used to restraining struggling people by now. They closed the cell and locked it behind them before dragging Kait down the hall.

Kait would pull herself free from time to time and eventually managed to get away from the two men but only for a second before they knocked her to the ground. Kait helplessly struggled as they dragged her into a secluded cell that didn't have a barred door, only one with a small hole for guards to look into. In the room was a bloody chair.

Kait screamed as she tried with everything in her power to get free but one man pulled her into the chair and quickly tied her wrists behind her back in the chair. The men lit a torch that they had mounted to the wall for light before they shut the door with the three in the room.

Kait tried to steady her breathing but she was near a panic attack as she watched one of the Forged draw a knife and hold it in the fire until the blade was a horrifying red hot color. Kait started kicking violently as the man slowly approached her with the widest grin possible on his face.

"I'll mark you as one of the blessed," the sick fuck informed her. She grunted out in fear as the other man held her legs still while she tried, really tried to break free. Her eyes widened as the man brought the hot blade close to her face. Kait squeezed her eyes shut and screamed as she felt the searing blade split her skin on her left cheek. He dragged it ever so slowly down her jaw line but only stopped when Kait finally got her legs free and kicked both of the men away from her; she hit the one who was holding her legs in the face when she did so.

Her actions very obviously upset the two and one stayed put while the other suddenly left the room for a moment. When he returned, Kait started struggling when he saw the man equipped with a nail gun.

"Fuck off!" Kait started kicking again as the man with the blade held her this time. Kait's heart rate increased tremendously as she watched in fear as the other man kneeled down in front of her.

Kait started shaking her head frantically, "N-no, no, no, NO!" She cried out loudly as she felt the first nail go through her foot and screamed again as she felt the second. She threw her head back and cried in pain as she felt the man put three nails in each foot, pinning her feet to the floor.

A noise from the intercom came on again and Kait didn't even hear what the leader said; she was too busy releasing loud cries of pain by the time the two in the room with her left for a moment.

Kait tried to blink the tears out of her eyes as she couldn't wipe them away. She twisted her wrists so much in the ropes that they were burning her already broken flesh. Kait pulled so much that her joints felt as though they'd dislocate but she needed to be free. Kait grit her teeth and closed her eyes as she struggled violently in her wrist restraints until one hand came free. Kait breathed out heavily and panted as she now could slip her other wrist freely out.

Kait's hands were shaking as she leaned forward in the chair to look at her feet. She tried to raise one of her boots but cried loudly from the pain.

"Fuck!" Kait panted. She gathered all of her strength as she leaned forward. Her trembling fingers wrapped around the nail heads of her left foot before she tried to pull it out.

Kait tried not to scream from the pain and when she thought all hope was lost in getting free, she grunted loudly when the first nail came free. Good start. Now five more to go.

Kait closed her eyes as she breathed heavily and gripped her hair tightly. She had just one fucking nail left to go. Kait grabbed it and pulled hard, straining herself until the long, bloody, rusty nail slipped free.

Before she recovered, the door suddenly opened and the first man who said that he wanted her entered by himself.

"The fuck are you doing?!" He yelled and slammed the door behind him. Kait tried to grab the nails she dropped but the man grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her to the floor. Kait gasped from the loss of air and the man was on her.

"I've never had," the man said with his hot, horribly smelling breath breathing on her, "someone from the Brotherhood before.

The Forged struck her in the face quickly, stunning her. Kait grabbed the man's clothes and tried to shove him away but he continuously threw her hands away from him as he started ripping her pants.

He was too close for Kait to kick him off and she knew he was starting to undo his pants now. Kait grabbed the man by his throat but he pinned her wrist above her head. She slapped her free hand to the ground desperately until she felt a few of the nails on her fingertips.

The man's nails were now clawing into her skin as he was about to expose her fully but Kait slammed the side of her fist to the man's neck. She heard a satisfying gag come from him as four of the nails became lodged in his jugular.

The Forged backed off of her as he held his hand on his throat, fear burning in his eyes. Kait rose to her feet regardless of how much they screamed at her for doing so. She shoved the man against the wall and gripped the nails on his neck. Blood gushed out of the wound as she pulled them out just to shove them back into his neck over and over until the life left the man's eyes.

Kait backed away in disgust as she let the man's limp body hit the ground. She searched his body and was disappointed to find twelve lousy 10mm bullets on him with a nearly broken pistol. He did have a knife on him which she gladly took.

"You all," Kait mumbled lowly to the corpse, "need to burn in hell for what you've done." She limped towards the door and slowly opened it. When she did, the lights in the penitentiary suddenly turned off with a loud crash. All that lit up the area now was the endless rows of flickering fire.

"Round two!" The leader laughed over the intercom. "Can you sweethearts hide from us? Don't let us find you!" The doors opened again to every cell, "Go!"

Kait breathed heavily as she knelt low to the ground, keeping one hand on the door frame to the doorway she rested in. Her feet were still bleeding and they hurt so much that she had to rest for just a moment. She thought of what the leader said. Don't let the Forged find them? Don't let Kait find the Forged.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Most of the paths Kait took were pitch black. She was keeping low to the ground as she walked to improve her stealth and also because it hurt almost too much to move on her feet while standing as she hugged the wall for support. Echoing all throughout the prison was the sound of wicked laughter and occasional screams. On the first body Kait had killed, she found a set of keys on him and helped herself to them.

Ahead of her, Kait heard a body hit the floor followed by a scared whimper. She quickly moved to the next area and saw one of the Forged walking slowly to a girl that had hit the ground and began crawling backwards while the man had a knife out.

"Hey!" Kait yelled and made the man jump from startlement. Kait knocked the man to the ground with a tackle and she plunged the knife she had deep into the man's chest, killing him instantly.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" The woman Kait saved had said in fright.

"Saving you," Kait stated.

The girl shook her head quickly, "N-no, if they find out what you've done…! They'll do very, very bad things to you…. You should have just let me die!"

Kait could barely see the girl with the lack of light she had, "I'm not scared of these assholes. I'm going to kill every last one of them."

The girl trembled as Kait looted the corpse before approaching her.

"Here," Kait said as she knelt in front of the girl and handed her a pistol the man had on him as well as the knife.

"Hide," Kait ordered. "If they find you, defend yourself."

The girl nodded shakily before rising to her feet, holding the pistol in her hand with great force. "I-I'll hide…" Kait nodded to her and the girl ran off.

Her bloody feet led her to the cafeteria of the prison. The hall before her was black as night but the kitchen had fire lined along the walls. She took her first step in an heard the men hiding within before she could see them.

"Delivering herself to us," a Forged laughed as he stepped out into the fire light. "You are such a sweetie."

Kait rose up on her legs to stand; her feet killing her but she forced herself to endure it. Now was not the time to falter.

She watched as three more men stepped out, leaving it four to one. A man to her left spoke up now, "Oh I love it when they fight. Makes it all the more satisfying when they give in."

Kait gave the man to her left a cold glare, "Come and get it then."

As she had her head turned to her left, the man from her right ran first. The other three slid to a halt in their assault when Kait suddenly pulled out the 10mm pistol from under her coat and put a few bullets in the man, dropping him where he was.

"How did-" one of the man was shocked yet infuriated. He quickly ran when Kait fired upon him and hid behind a metal table. Kait counted her shots carefully and managed to hit the leg of another man just before her gun jammed; not ran out of bullets.

Kait cursed and threw the gun down when the one who wasn't hidden or shot came at her. She held the knife up defensively and prepared for his obvious strike.

The Forged had his knife out and sliced downwards at her but she stepped to the side and stabbed him once in the side and then in the back before then disarming him with her other hand and stabbing him in the throat.

The other two men were at her. Kait kicked the wounded man where he got shot and he let out a satisfying yelp as he staggered while the other man had a makeshift shiv and attempted to stab her. Kait blocked his attack by deflecting his strike to the side. She now widened her eyes when she saw the wounded man finally pull out a gun, having enough of her fighting.

The first shot was fired and Kait quickly tried to jump out of the way. The bullet whizzed past her but she felt the air from it. She lunged one way as he fired again before rushing towards him. Kait grabbed his wrist when he was in reach and aimed his gun to the ceiling just when a horrible, sharp pain shot up her body from her side.

Kait gasped loudly in pain as the other man shoved the shiv deep in her side. Kait winced as she tried to back away. When the man pulled the blade back out to stab her again, all he pulled away was the handle; the blade was lodged in her body but it didn't hit anything vital.

Kait tried to stay strong when she swung her knife at the attacker who stabbed her and the blade from it nicked his face enough to make him look away quickly. She reacted to the Forged with the gun fast enough to stab him in the gut.

The man lurched forwards from the impact and Kait let go of the blade now. She snatched the gun from him before shooting him once in the head then turning to the last man and hitting him in the chest with four shots.

Kait hunched forwards now and grit her teeth, "Dammit …!" she weakly fell down to her side but tried to keep herself up with one knee and her elbow on the ground. Kait held her left hand over the wound were the blade was in the left side of her. Just the movement from her breathing made her able to feel the sharpness lodged in her flesh. She retrieved her blade before forcing herself to stand.

Her shoulder slid along the wall as Kait slowly limped down more cell block areas. All around her on the upper and lower floors, she could see the Forged scouting for whoever they could find. Being in a horrible position to fight, Kait hid herself every time another man would come in sight even though she had the new gun with her.

Kait came across a broom closet when she saw another Forged enter the area. She quietly slipped in the room and saw that it was a bigger than normal closet but still crammed and still dark as hell. Stacked within were boxes that were placed around enough to hide behind. Kait carefully dropped to her knees as she slowly crawled behind some boxes; she needed to rest. When she came around the corner, she could barely see the little light reflecting off of a pair of eyes looking back at her.

"K-Knight Kait?" The scribe shakily whispered.

Kait was surprised to see her but also immensely grateful. "Y-you're still alive? Oh thank God…."

"We're going to die here…," the scribe said brokenly.

Kait weakly shook her head, "No we're not. We'll make it."

The scribe shook her head in return, "No, no we won't. We're going to die," she gripped her head tightly and huddled her knees to her chest, "We're going to die here! This is it!"

"Shh!" Kait tried to hush her but when the scribe was losing it, the Knight had to force her hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. Her movement shot another sharp pain up her side and Kait winced from the feeling. Kait could feel the cold sweat on her forehead and she leaned against the cold wall they were crammed against while holding her bleeding side again. "I-I need your help," she told the scribe.

The scribe started crying and shaking as she just continuously shook her head.

Kait was losing her even more than she was already gone. "Please," Kait begged, "please hold it together." When the scribe wasn't relaxing, Kait quickly grabbed her holotags even though her side immediately protested. Kait never bothered to ask the scribe's name until then. She had to wait until her eyes adjusted enough before she finally read her name.

"Janet," Kait began carefully, "I need you right now. You are a member of the Brotherhood of Steel and you need to stay strong like one. You're not alone; you have me and so many others behind you. Remember what you fight for. To victory, right?"

Janet finally stopped crying and slowly looked into Kait's eyes.

"We're going to make it," Kait promised. "But I really, really need your help. Please, Janet. Please help me."

Everything was silent for too long until the scribe finally parted her dry lips, "What do you need?"

Working with barely any light was almost impossible. The only thing they had was from the fire outside pouring light in from under the door. Kait laid on her side as the scribe carefully looked at her stab wound. She had no proper tools to work with but found something she could use as a substitute in one of the boxes stacked within the closet. One of which was just a metal butter knife.

Kait gripped her hair tightly and grit her teeth, fighting herself to not scream every step of the way as Janet slowly opened up her wound. She didn't have anything to grab onto the lodged in blade so she had to use her slender fingers.

"Just try to stay still," Janet said as she began by carefully pushing her index finger inside the hole.

"Gaahhh, fuck!" Kait panted and just held onto her head with both hands. She could feel the blade moving as the scribe got a hold of it.

"Almost done," Janet updated as she remained calm. She didn't want to quickly pull the blade out due to the blood on it; her fingers could possibly slip off of it. The blade finally revealed its tip as Janet pulled it the rest of the way out.

As the scribe dropped the blade on the ground, she now took a cloth also found in one of the boxes before firmly pressing it to Kait's side. They ripped a part of Kait's shirt off before having her sit up. Janet then took the shirt and securely tied it around her waist to keep the cloth against her wound.

Kait moaned lowly from the pain she felt but she breathed out, "Thank you."

The scribe nodded, "Of course."

They both froze when they saw the door to the closet slowly open. Of course, a Forged was on the other side and he looked triumphant when he saw the two females on the other side.

"Looks like I found you." He said.

"That's too bad," Janet said as she took the gun Kait had on her and shot the Forged. The gun they had now was far louder than the 10mm Kait had earlier and it seemed like some of the Forged finally decided to see what had happened. During her hunt, Kait had heard a rare gunshot here and there but it was never much; the Forged seemed to want their victims alive for the most part, or at least would kill the girls with blades. It was more personal that way.

"We need to move," Kait ordered. The scribe nodded and the two quickly left the broom closet to continue on.

Kait was in pain but she didn't say anything to complain. Instead, she turned her head towards the scribe behind her while she led the way stealthily through the penitentiary.

"What's the plan?" Janet asked.

Kait finally found the stairwell she was looking for before speaking, "We need to leave but I want to get out as much girls as we can. I say to start, we need to kill this sick bastard who calls the shots. I'm going to assume that he's in the warden's office. I don't know where else an intercom would be at. There, I assume there's an override to unlock every door in the prison, including the front. As for the rest of these Forged assholes, we need to just kill them as we see them."

Janet nodded, "Okay. So I assume we're heading up?"

"Yup." Kait casually answered. They ascended to the upper levels of the prison and Kait let Janet keep the gun while she stayed behind the Knight. The loud yelling from the floors below made the two stop to look over the railing at what was happening.

A hoard of Forged ran together after they had started to find dead bodies of their own. Kait knew that they finally caught onto someone fighting back and they didn't seem to like it too much when their numbers started to fall.

"Let's move before they decide to check up here," Kait said as she motioned Janet to stay with her. On the upper floors, the Forged were far less and the two Brotherhood members stealthily took out the ones they did stumble across. It wasn't long until they found a door to a room that could only be the one they sought.

Kait was there first. She slowly grabbed the handle and the door was locked but Kait didn't worry while she retrieved the keys she took a while ago. It took a moment to find the right key but when she did, the door unlocked immediately.

In the room was lit with another homemade molten pit in the center. The old chairs, tables, and computers were rearranged to make it more like a throne room instead of an office. There was a large chair that also stretched out far enough to be a bed with bloody dark red sheets spread across with matching pillows. Tables were lined with candles on each side and various tools that looked ritualistic. Against the wall with the doorway was a desk with several terminals that were cameras and also just normal computers and sure enough, there was a box with a button to activate the intercom. The heat that hit them from within was almost unbearable. What freak could live in that room? It was also a wonder as to how the computers didn't malfunction due to the temperature. But other than that, it was empty.

Kait and Janet slowly stood before they took a small step inside. Kait looked over at the terminals and began approaching them.

"An override has to be on one of these," Kait said. She glanced back at the scribe and her heart dropped. "Janet! Behind-"

Janet quickly looked behind her and a monstrously tall man clad in caged armor stood behind her. When the scribe lifted her pistol to shoot, the Forged leader grabbed her wrist and squeezed so hard that she had to drop it and cry out.

Kait watched as the leader grabbed Janet by the throat and slammed her against the wall, lifting her feet from the floor. Kait gripped her knife tightly before charging at the man but he turned to her quickly and grabbed her as soon as she neared.

Kait tried to stab his arm but his armor was too thick. With a laugh, the leader tossed Janet across the room before lifting Kait next and slamming her on the floor. The knife in Kait's hand rolled away from her.

"You've made it," the leader announced from behind his helmet. "You shall meet our God."

Kait was lifted again by her shirt with ease and dragged over to the molten pit. As the heat started to burn her skin, Kait fought the man as much as she could, panicking as she couldn't loosen his grip.

"Let go of her!" Janet screamed as she retrieved Kait's knife and jumped on the leader's back. She found the thin part of his armor in between his shoulder and neck and plunged the knife deeply into it. The Forged screamed out and lashed out violently as he dropped Kait by the pit.

Kait sat up just as the leader backed out of the room with the scribe still stabbing him. Kait yelled for the scribe to get off as the leader backed away too much and hit the railing. After so long, the railing was weak and easily gave in as the huge man ran into it. Kait watched in horror as the leader and the scribe fell over the edge.

"No!" Kait yelled and ran out in the open. She looked over the ledge and saw the bodies just two floors down with what looked like Janet lying on top. As Kait tried to see if the scribe was still moving, the hard knuckles from a gloved fist hit her where the other Forged had cut her along the face and she lost her breath while falling to the side.

When Kait looked up at her attacker, it was another man coming to his leader's aid but instead chose to take care of her while he was there. Kait's air got cut off as his strong hands wrapped securely around her throat and she reacted by grabbing his head and digging her thumbs into his eyes. The man screamed and was forced to let go of her after blood was drawn and he couldn't take anymore. When Kait rose to her feet, he knocked her again and made her fall into the doorway to the office.

Kait readied herself as the man lunged at her and she raised her boot up to hit his stomach and threw his weight over her. The man hit the ground and rolled close to the pit. Before he could recover, Kait faced him and kicked him to roll one more time. He let out a horrible scream as his legs fell into the molten first before the rest of him slipped in.

Kait panted and stepped backwards just as the whole building suddenly shook from a violent explosion that tore through some of the walls.

She lost her balance from the shaking building and fell to one knee. The used up energy in her was catching up with her and Kait couldn't take anymore. She looked out to what was going on and the sound of lasers was the first thing to make her heart race with hope. The Brotherhood was there. It seemed as though her distress beacon actually worked.

Kait laughed through a pant and placed her hands on the hot ground as she caught her breath. She leaned against the doorway as the Brotherhood secured the building in a matter of minutes. The surviving hostages were gathered together and escorted out. From where she was, she caught a glimpse of a familiar coat as she saw Elder Maxson joined in with the rest as he took a part in the rescue. After a while, she saw a suit of power armor quickly moving towards her and when her blue eyes cast over in the direction, she smiled widely when she saw who was behind the mask as they removed their helmet.

"Kait! Are you alright?!" Danse said with worry as he stopped by her.

Kait had never been more relieved to see him before, "I'm fine. …. It took you long enough."

Danse was knelt down by her and his metal hand carefully touched the gash along her cheek, "We got here as fast as we could. How did this even happen?"

"Can I tell you later?" Kait asked with a smile as she placed her small in comparison hand on his power armored one. She was exhausted and still in a lot of pain while she leaned her head against the doorframe.

Danse smiled back but his eyes still revealed him to be scared to death over what he may have found. "Of course."

They brought several Vertibirds but they had to take two trips just to get everyone back at the airport. Maxson radioed in and told those left at the Brotherhood base to start setting up an infirmary down in the airport for every victim to be treated and cared for.

The Elder stayed behind with a handful of others as they scouted out the rest of the area while the first set of people left.

Danse returned with the first group and helped get all the women to the infirmary. While stepping carefully off of a Vertibird, Kait saw Janet get off of another but she was holding her side and limping. Even though injured, Kait smiled; grateful that she survived and she must have assumed that the Forged leader had broke the scribe's fall.

Kait took a seat while a doctor looked at her injuries. She carefully slid her boots off right as Danse now approached her to check up on her situation. The Paladin hesitated when he saw what happened to Kait's feet. They were covered in blood and had holes in each of them that were already bruising and swelling.

"Nail gun," Kait said with a smile but winced when the doctor started rubbing the wound carefully with a clean, wet cloth.

"Who were they?" Danse questioned.

Kait wasn't smiling anymore and watched the doctor work, "I don't know. They called themselves the Forged or something. Crazy fuckers that worshiped fire."

"You've never heard of them?" Danse asked.

"Obviously not," Kait answered. When the doctor got done, Kait got his attention, "I got stabbed too."

The doctor looked at her, "Where?"

Kait lifted her shirt and started untying the cloth around her. Her feet were in worse condition than her side and the doctor agreed as he examined it closely, "Just needs a few stitches." He then looked at the cut on her bloodied face, "And that needs to be watched so it doesn't get infected."

Kait nodded and laid down on the bed as the doctor indicated her to do so. Laying down on a soft bed felt great and Kait released a silent, content sigh. She saw Danse as he came around to her side and looked down at her with concern.

"What did they want?" Danse asked.

Kait looked at him for a moment before looking away and speaking seriously, "They liked to do trials. I think they'd head out on a daily basis to collect women for their sick pleasure because they'd then kill those who couldn't pass certain tests. They claimed to be _cleansing_ them but they'd just kill them by fire. Those who survived just got a worse fate in my opinion. They… they did horrible things to those girls."

Danse felt sick and he tried to ask but a part of him didn't want to know; terrified of her answer, "Did they…."

Kait shook her head and gave him a reassuring look, "No. I killed him before he could do anything." She moved her foot to regard them, "They tried to _mark_ me or whatever. That's why they cut my face. They didn't like it when I struggled so they nailed me to the floor."

Danse's facial expression said enough. If they weren't already all dead, he'd personally go and slaughter every last one of them for what they've done. They both looked out towards the rest of the airport as more Vertibirds arrived and Maxson stepped off of one.

Brotherhood members saluted the Elder as he walked through the setup infirmary obviously looking for someone. When his eyes set on Kait, he made his way towards her.

"Where is the rest of your squad?" Maxson questioned her.

Kait hesitated a little to answer, "They killed the other Knight and the Paladin was killed at the prison." Kait leaned her head up but the doctor made her lay back down as he prepared to stitch up her side. "Scribe Janet should be here somewhere."

Maxson looked upset but not at Kait. About the unfortunate events that had just occurred. "I see. …. We found your missing gear. Your weapons and pip boy are being unloaded off of a Vertibird right now. We'll have them brought to your bunk."

Kait was grateful, "Thank you Elder." She winced from the needle in her flesh, "Scribe Janet's bag should have the magnet in it. We did retrieve it."

Maxson was confused at first but only for a split-second. It appeared that he wasn't even worried about that at the moment and that was a side of the Elder that Kait didn't think actually existed. Did he have a noble side to him after all?

"I'll expect a full report from you when you've recovered Knight." Maxson said.

Kait nodded, "Yes sir."

The next night, Kait started on her report. She had discussed with the others as to what they should do with the unfortunate victims who survived the prison. Without any argument, they allowed Kait to suggest having Preston Garvey and the Minutemen take them in and protect them at one of their many settlements.

Kait had her pip boy back on her left arm and sat out into the airport near the water as she wrote her report on paper as she had the clipboard rested against her legs as they were brought up. She heard footsteps near her but didn't bother looking up while she focused solely on her writing.

"There you are," Danse said as soon as he turned the corner.

Kait looked up when she learned it was him, "Were you looking for me?"

"Possibly," he said with a small smile before taking a seat next to her. "How are you feeling?"

Kait lightly touched her cheek. It still hurt, her side stung, but her feet still were very sore. "Better. Just waiting for my feet to heal up."

"I'm glad you're okay." Danse said. "I didn't know what to think when we found your distress signal. I thought that maybe…."

"You feared the worst," Kait said for him as she placed the report on the ground beside her. "I'll admit, it was terrifying. But I told myself that I wasn't going to die in there. I plan on dying in a natural way, or a heroic one. Not like cattle."

"You did good." Danse commented.

Kait mockingly saluted to him, "Why thank you sir."

Danse smiled a little, "Don't call me sir. I told you to stop that."

Kait rolled her eyes playfully to him, "When I first joined, you would scold me when I wouldn't refer to you as my superior. Now, you tell me not to? You confuse your student, Paladin."

Danse shook his head because of her, "You're not under my wing anymore Knight. I'm just Paladin Danse to you now. Not sir. And you're not my student."

"Is that so?" Kait tilted her head a little at him.

Danse nodded, "It is."

"So," Kait placed her hands under her to adjust her sitting position, "how do I thank you then, Paladin Danse?"

Danse shrugged. "Just a thank you will be fine."

Kait started to move nervously. She and Danse were okay and now that Kait accepted the fact that it would be okay for her to move on with her life, she started to accept and embrace her feelings towards him. Honestly, all she wanted to do when Danse first showed up in the prison was to kiss him. Now, they were alone and she was getting cold feet.

Danse regarded how late it was, "I suppose I'll return to the Prydwen. Don't stay out too late, okay?"

When Danse moved, Kait caught his hand and made him remain seated. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Danse's heart picked up when she rose to her knees and moved closer to him. He closed his eyes when he felt her soft hands slide along his face and gently grabbed her arms to pull her to him even closer as she pressed her warm lips against his.

Kait seated herself on his lap and had both of her hands on his face now and deepened their kiss. She loved his hands on her as he sweetly placed his hands on her upper back.

Danse dreaded when she finally pulled away from him and he slowly opened his eyes to look into her beautiful blue ones. "What was that?"

"My thanks to you," Kait breathed softly.

Danse smiled a little, "Have you been wanting to do that for a while?"

Kait smiled broadly and copied his answer from earlier, "Possibly."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Maxson finished reading through the report that Kait had written up and when he flipped to the last page, he saw that the drawing she had made a few days ago was attached and a small grin actually spread across the Elder's face.

He passed the report to a scribe for them to go file away before he turned to look out the windows of the Prydwen. Down below in the airport, Maxson could see the arrival of Preston Garvey, as well as a few others.

The Elder ordered Kait to remain on the Prydwen until she was fully recovered but she argued with him, stating that she deserved a leave from the Brotherhood but just so she could return to her life for a few days. She wasn't leaving for good. In fact, she requested to go with Preston to the Castle to escort the women there so she was still continuing from where they left off. Giving in, Maxson finally agreed with her.

Danse was coming with them. The Paladin stood back and watched as Kait ran up to Preston once he arrived and gave him a big hug. She hated being away from her friends for too long.

"Kait!" Preston began as he lifted his hand to touch her cheek but hovered his fingers just by her face. "What happened?"

Kait gave him a wry smile, "I got into trouble. Like always."

Danse noticed that a certain member with Preston started to shift impatiently while the one next to him kept their head low.

"Ready to go?" Preston asked.

Kait nodded and the group began their journey towards the Castle. Just as Danse assumed, as soon as they were out of the Brotherhood's sight, the impatient member with Preston almost tackled Kait in excitement while the one keeping their head low ran up to her other side and grabbed her shoulder.

Kait was surprised to see Deacon and Nick as they both expressed their happiness to see her.

"God, Kait," Deacon began, "why do you always have to disappear for so long?"

"Yeah," Nick added in. "It'd be nice to get at least a letter from time to time so we know you're okay."

"Sorry guys," Kait gave them an apologetic smile. "I'll try to keep in touch more often."

Deacon threw his arm around her shoulder as they walked, "Good. Or else next time we're going to kidnap you."

Kait laughed, "I don't think that'd be a good idea."

Deacon looked back at Danse who was still watching them, "Why? Will the soldier boy hunt me down?" The look the Paladin gave Deacon was one of unamusement.

"That sounds likely," Danse said firmly.

Nick was the one to change the topic, "So what have you been up to lately?"

Kait regarded the group they were escorting, "Mainly this. I went to see Shaun again."

"How was that?" The detective asked.

Kait lightly touched her cheek as the cut started to itch, "It was better." Kait shook her head slowly and looked down a little as she spoke, "So many things have happened lately."

Danse listened in as she spoke, knowing that he was part of what she was talking about.

"My emotions have been all over the place," she continued. "Horrible things have happened, great things, exciting and new experiences. Everything's happening one after another and it finally caught up to me. I'm better now but before, I didn't know what to do."

"Will you come back to Sanctuary with us?" Preston said from ahead.

Kait was about to answer but Deacon spoke first, "I think you should. Take a break from the asshole squad and come hang out with the cool kids for a while."

Kait almost chuckled and removed Deacon's arm, "You know that I'm a part of that asshole squad."

Preston looked back now from her words, "You're with the Brotherhood again? I didn't think they'd actually take you back. I just thought you were helping out."

Kait tried to reassure her friends, "I was kind of forced to join again." She barely looked back enough to make eye contact with Danse for a moment before looking back at the others, "But it hasn't been bad. I just need to play nice and learn how to listen."

"Or they'll gut you, huh?" Deacon said seriously.

"That's enough." Danse finally spoke up. He wasn't going to let them talk badly about what he revolved his life around while he was in their company. It didn't help that Danse was the one who was supposed to be doing the _gutting_ if Kait did mess up somewhere.

Kait agreed with Danse. They didn't need to talk about the Brotherhood right then. She finally answered Preston, "Yeah. I'll come back."

When they arrived to the Castle, Kait spoke with the female survivors. They were scared, but Kait promised that they would have protection there. She showed them underground tunnels where they could hide if anything happened and showed them where they would sleep. Kait made sure to have female Minutemen as a variety among the guard to help the girls feel more comfortable.

Danse was impressed as he watched Kait take charge of the situation. She didn't decide to leave until she made sure that every last person was okay and helped with anything that they may have needed while also attending to some repairs in their defenses. When everything was okay, Kait and the others finally departed to return to Sanctuary.

It was a very long walk and Kait's feet had enough. When they finally arrived back to Sanctuary at about 7pm a few days later, Kait collapsed on a couch in the building right across from her old home.

"Ugh, it feels so good to finally sit down!" Kait groaned and removed her boots quickly. Her feet had bandages around them as well as medicine but they still hurt like a bitch to walk on.

"What happened?" Nick asked as he could see faint stains of red on the bandages.

"Long story," Kait answered. She looked up at the doorway as the Paladin stood in it.

"I suppose," Danse spoke, "I'll return to the Prydwen. Don't be gone too long."

Kait sat up quickly, "Wait, you're leaving?"

Danse nodded, "I was to escort you to the Castle and that was it. I tagged along to make sure you made it here safely."

Deacon had overheard the conversation as he was approaching the building next and, even if he personally didn't care too much for the Paladin, he knew Kait did and could tell by her voice that she really didn't want him to leave.

"Nonsense!" Deacon spoke up and pushed Danse from the doorway to enter the building now so he could too. "It's getting late, we've been traveling for three days, and I think it's time we all chilled."

Danse didn't take too kindly to the Railroad agent laying his hands on him but the Paladin didn't argue with him, "Fine. But I'll leave in the morning."

Kait smiled and was grateful for Deacon's persistence. She and Danse never really had the chance to ever relax around one another while they were holed up on the Prydwen.

Danse wasn't the most social of the bunch but he sat at the table with the others as they broke out a deck of cards and began playing poker. It was night outside but they had a light fixed up over the table to illuminate everyone.

"Stop cheating MacCready!" Cait yelled as he took another pot of bottle caps due to his winning hand.

"Hey," he spoke coolly, "It's not my fault you aren't as good as me."

"I bet," she retorted, "that I'm better than you in a fist fight!"

MacCready casually shook his head as he looked at his new hand that Curie dealt everyone, "I'm not going to hit a girl."

"Pfft," Cait mocked. " You know you'd lose, that's why."

"You're right." MacCready said just to get her to stop, "Now put those caps on the table for me."

The hand was down to MacCready, Kait, Nick and Danse. Danse folded and Kait tried to hold back her laughter as Deacon commented in her ear about every move she did.

"Oh, don't do it! Don't do it!" Deacon was freaking out beside her as he watched her put more caps on the table.

"Please," Kait had to laugh, "shut the hell up, Deacon!"

Both Nick and MacCready called and Deacon slammed his hand on the table, "You two are making a mistake! It'd be wise to take your losses now."

"Kaitlyn," MacCready was grinning, "I didn't know you had your own mascot."

"An irritating one," Nick commented. What shocked the group the most was that Danse actually turned up a small smile to the synth's words.

Kait shrugged with a smile, "Everyone's gotta have their groupies I guess."

Deacon leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his bald head, "I'm just trying to warn you guys."

"But it's impossible," Preston joined in, "to tell who's side your on."

"Yeah!" Hancock piped up. "On one hand, you're discouraging Kait to continue and the others, you're harassing all of us to drop out."

"It's just how you play the game, Mayor," Deacon said with pride.

Piper rolled her eyes, "Have you even won a hand yet?"

Deacon wagged his finger in the air as if she had a point, "That I have not."

"So you're obviously doing something wrong," Cait said.

Kait loved her friends. She showed her hand to be a straight, seven high. MacCready had the same but with a higher lead and Nick was housing a four of a kind.

"Ooh, and Detective Valentine takes it!" Deacon commentated.

As Nick took the pot, MacCready gathered the cards together and retrieved another deck. "Here," he began, "Let's try something else."

MacCready slid the second deck across the table to Kait as he began sifting through the deck he still had and removed some cards from it, laying them to the side. "This is a game that's pretty popular over in the Mojave wasteland that I've picked up on in my lifetime." He looked up at Kait, "It's called Caravan."

"Caravan?" Kait echoed.

MacCready nodded, "Yeah, here's the rundown." MacCready explained how each player had three stacks, or caravans, that they had to get to the numerical value range of 21 - 26. He briefly explained what each face card did and how to use them in the game. He stated that it's good to make a custom deck and that each one needed at least thirty cards.

Kait was completely confused on what to do as they attempted their first game. Right away, MacCready won without a challenge at all.

"I don't get it," Kait shook her head.

MacCready assured her, "It's alright. I didn't really get it at first either but the more you play, the more you'll understand."

Kait sighed, "Sure." They each started over and began playing the game again. Danse watched as Kait was about to pick a card from her hand and quickly moved to sit beside her when she did.

"Take the King instead," Danse said.

Kait was surprised by his sudden interest, "What? Why?"

MacCready, with his interests peaked, watched as the Paladin spoke lowly to Kait, coaching her through what they were doing. With his guidance, Kait got two caravans to 26 and ruined one of MacCready's with a Jack before taking the game.

"What the hell was that?" MacCready said to Danse.

"Caravan," the Paladin answered simply.

MacCready smirked, "Where did you learn to play? Don't expect me to believe that you're from New Vegas."

Danse shook his head, "No, I'm from the Capital Wasteland. I was a merchant in Rivet City for a while and I met a traveler that came all the way from the Mojave who taught me how to play. Though, it's been many years since I have."

Danse looked over now at Kait who was looking straight at him. It wasn't until then that she realized that she really didn't know anything about him.

MacCready laughed, "I never thought that you'd have any side to you that's anything less than soldierly."

"Yeah," Deacon added in, "And I can't believe that you've actually had a life outside of the Brotherhood."

Danse didn't have the chance to comment when Cait was already leaning to be closer to him, "I'd love to hear it handsome."

Danse refused, "My life isn't something I casually discuss with people."

Cait made herself sport a fake pouting face, "Come on. I think I can convince you in some way to tell me."

Danse couldn't express any more how uninterested he was in the Irish woman and he shook his head, "No thank you." He stopped her before she could try to say something else, "I'd appreciate it if the conversation stopped there."

"Cait," Kait had had enough of the other woman too. She knew Danse wasn't interested but she still didn't like having another woman flirt with the man that she had feelings over.

Cait sighed and leaned roughly back in the chair, "Sorry Kaitlyn, I just need to get laid! I mean, it's been about a month for me and I'm already going insane! I can't imagine how you feel! What has it been? Like 260 years?" Cait shook her head, "I'd lose it."

Kait let out an unexpected laugh and shook her head while she stood awkwardly, "That is exactly what I was wanting to hear. Thank you for sharing with all of us that, Cait. I think it's time I took my leave now."

Cait chuckled too at the sight of the other Kait getting uncomfortable but there were no hard feelings between the two, "Sharing is caring, love. You have a wonderful night."

Kait heard Deacon now start asking about the rules of Caravan again as she left the building. She heard Danse approach her while he left too and she knew that the others weren't questioning his followed departure. Even if they all acted like they got along, Danse knew he didn't belong but he didn't want to. Kait appreciated him staying quiet while around Hancock and Nick even though she knew that the Paladin couldn't stand the sight of them, let alone being in their presence. The only reason why Danse ever stayed around was for Kait. If she was gone, then he'd have no reason to be there.

"I think your friend wants me," Danse said.

Kait quickly looked at him with surprise. Did he just joke? It sounded too foreign but she joined him regardless, "Really? I couldn't tell."

A small smile played on his lips, "I could be mistaken."

"Probably," Kait laughed. She pushed the door to her home open and the two walked up to her room. Danse was originally going to leave her there to find a spare bed for himself that night but Kait insisted that he come in.

"So I realized something," Kait began while not looking at him. She sat down on a couch she had against the wall opposite of her bed. "I don't know you."

Danse wasn't expecting to hear what she said and he was confused, "What do you mean?"

Kait leaned forward on the couch and gripped the edge of the cushion, "Who are you? You're really from the Capital Wasteland?"

Danse now understood what she was saying. "Yes. Like I said earlier, I was a merchant in Rivet City before I was recruited into the Brotherhood."

Kait was almost astounded. She couldn't imagine Danse as anything other than a soldier. She tried to picture him in farmer's clothes standing behind a wooden stall trying to sell wonderglue but the image never formed.

"You don't believe me," Danse stated more than he asked.

Kait quickly shook her head, "No, it's not that! It's just hard to… you know…. Picture you as anything else. My first impression of you was a giant robot man with a fancy laser rifle. I mean, when I first joined, you would just scold me like a child left and right. I saw you like a drill sergeant."

She had a point but the conversation wasn't one-sided, "I don't know anything about you either."

Kait fell silent. He was right. "Well," she began slowly, "Let's get to know each other. …. Do you want to go first?"

Danse nodded after a moment and took a seat next to her when he began, "I was an orphan in the Capital Wasteland. I spent my whole childhood just scavenging for anything I could make a living off of. When I got older, I finally managed to scrape together enough caps to start my own shop in Rivet City. All I sold was junk and I barely made it by just like that. It was there when I met a man named Cutler. He and I grew to be great friends. Then one day the Brotherhood showed up and was taking anyone who was willing to join. It was like a wish come true; to actually do something with my life. I was nothing before they came by. All I did was scavenge anything I could and sometimes that wasn't enough to even eat for a few days. Cutler and I joined them and left our old, pathetic lives behind." Danse took a deep breath as he continued, "We were only a year in when Cutler suddenly disappeared after an assignment. It took a lot of convincing but they finally let me go look for him."

Danse continued on and Kait didn't know what to say to his story. She watched as emotional pain formed in his eyes. His arms were tense and she knew he was reliving a memory he didn't want anymore.

"I found him in a super mutant hive. His whole squad was dead." Danse uncomfortably rubbed the back of his neck, "Everyone but Cutler. He was exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus; the one that turns humans into Super Mutants. He… was one of them." Kait felt as though she couldn't withstand the force in his eyes as he looked at her, "I told you before that I despise Super Mutants. This is why. I had to kill my best friend because of what they did to him." Danse tightened his hands into fists, "That's why I fight for the Brotherhood. Every super mutant, every ghoul, and every abominable synth needs to be destroyed! They plague this world and need to be eradicated."

Kait's flinched from his sudden outburst. She didn't like seeing Danse filled with hatred. It was terrifying. She felt uncomfortable and tried to speak, D-Danse… I'm-"

"I'm sorry," Danse sighed loudly as he rubbed his forehead. "I didn't mean for this to…. I got out of hand."

"It's alright," Kait said lowly. Danse noticed how she stayed a good distance away from him on the couch. He didn't mean to make her fear him.

"Kait," Danse spoke with concern.

Kait made herself smile and shook her head to dismiss his words, "It's fine, Danse. I'm sorry for making you bring up personal topics."

"It's okay." He began. "What about you? Tell me about your life."

"Well…," Kait scratched the back of her head as she thought of where to begin. "My parents divorced when I was very young, but it was okay. They still had a good relationship with each other and I got to see them both whenever I wanted. When I was a senior in high school, I almost got arrested."

Danse didn't expect that, "What?"

Kait grinned, "I hit kind of a rebellious stage in my youth. A new corporate building was being constructed in the town and it forced hundred of people in the city to lose their jobs so I went there with a few of my art friends at night. There, we covered one whole side of the building that they had constructed so far with graffiti showing the president of the company to be a tyrant enslaving all those laid off. Something that was typical anarchy." Kait had to laugh at Danse's surprised face, "Anyways, we got caught of course but those in the city stood up for us. What we did started a huge argument that lasted almost a year with countless court cases. Finally, they decided to cancel the construction of the building and tore it back down but we all had to do community service for two years."

"So you've always been this way," Danse commented.

Kait laughed and nudged his arm with her fist, "Always been what way? I just like to voice my opinion. Even if it does get me in trouble." Danse smiled at her and she continued, "I stopped all of that afterwards and went to community college where I studied the criminal justice system while doing the community service. There, I got granted a scholarship to a high-end Law School where I then went there for six years. I met Nate when I was twenty-two and we got married after a year. I graduated at twenty-five and that's also when I had Shaun. I was only out for another year when the bombs fell and the rest you know."

"So you're twenty-six now?" Danse asked.

Kait thought for a bit before nodding, "Yeah I guess so. I mean, I was that old when I got frozen. But I'm about to be twenty-seven." She suddenly looked off at nothing in particular.

Danse furrowed his brows slightly, "What's wrong?"

"I just can't..," Kait started slowly, "believe that it's already been a year…. It seems like yesterday that I emerged from the vault."

"You're a survivor." Danse said. He was cautious to bring up the next topic, "You brought… you mentioned him without crying."

Kait looked at Danse and it took her a moment to know who he was talking about, "Oh, you're right. …. Is that bad?"

Danse shook his head, "No. It just means that you've accepted it."

"I guess so," Kait said. She did just talk about Nate casually. Her thumb now stroked over his ring as she thought of her late husband. She was okay. Her eyes slowly found Danse's and she knew that he was the reason why.

"I've had help moving on," Kait spoke lowly.

Danse agreed, "You have friends that really care about you."

Kait smiled softly, "I was thinking of someone more specific."

Danse realized where she was getting at right away and smiled a little too, "Is that so?" He moved to be slightly closer to her on the couch, "Who are they?"

Kait let go of her husband's ring and felt playful. She shrugged half-heartedly, "Just some.. guy I come across from time to time."

Danse nodded as if he understood, "Oh, okay. What's his name?"

Kait grinned, "I think he likes to be called _sir_." She quickly stood up when Danse now tried to grab her and she laughed. She continued on as she backed away from him while he stood up too, "He's tall. Kind of handsome but very strict. We don't really get along most of the time but we're working on it."

"Well," Danse slowly stepped to her while smiling broadly himself, "Do you listen to this.. tall, strict sir?"

Kait shook her head nonchalantly, "Not really." She giggled loudly as she tried to run but he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down on the bed, getting over her with one knee on the bed and the other foot still touching the floor.

"Why not?" Danse asked as he lightly stroked her hair.

Kait was blushing lightly but her body was excited. She was loving this moment, "Because I'm a difficult person."

Danse nodded as if she had a point, "I think I could agree with that." He laughed softly when she hit his chest. He sweetly grabbed the hand that hit him and pinned it by her head, "Is there anything that this _sir_ could do to get you to listen?"

Kait bit her lip teasingly as she looked into his longing, brown eyes, "I know he's resorted to force before."

Danse was watching her bite her lip and leaned in a little closer when he locked eyes with her again, "It's that what makes you submit?"

Kait shrugged, "Sometimes."

"Sometimes," Danse echoed. "What about this?" he leaned in and softly kissed her neck, feeling the shiver go down her spine.

Kait's face was hot and she continued with being difficult, "Not really doing it yet." She rolled her eyes back and curled her toes just from his hot breath against her skin. She sighed when she felt his lips again on her neck.

"Danse..," Kait breathed.

Danse placed yet another kiss on her flesh and kept his head there when he spoke, "Should I stop?"

Kait shook her head and closed her hand around his that was pinning hers by her head, "No."

Danse hooked his fingers at the collar of her shirt to have access to her collarbones, "You won't regret this…. Will you?"

"No, I promise," she assured. She unlatched her pip boy and moved it to the side while Danse started to push her shirt up, exposing her soft stomach. Kait squirmed a little under him as his lips kissed her stomach before slowly moving up her torso. She sighed when he now firmly grabbed both of her breasts while her bra was still on.

"What about now?" Danse said as he kissed the flesh of the top of her breasts.

Kait had her eyes closed while she enjoyed his touch and knew where she wanted it to go, "No sir-" she quickly yelped when he bit her before leaning his head up and looking at her with desire.

"I've told you to stop." He said strongly.

"And I told you that I don't listen," Kait gasped when he quickly brought his mouth back to her neck as he squeezed her body tightly in his hands. "Why don't you like that?" she asked.

"Because," he was slowly kissing up her neck to her ear, "I don't want things to be professional between us."

Kait moaned behind a smile, "I see now. …. But what if I don't stop?"

"I'll make you," he growled in her ear.

Kait was ready, "Prove it."

Danse lifted her and laid her more up on the bed and crawled completely over her. He kissed her with force, proving to her that he will get what he wants. Kait couldn't even do anything by the time he pulled her pants off of her, leaving only her pushed up shirt and coat left on her. He made her sit up and she pulled her coat off while he impatiently tossed her shirt to the side. Kait removed her husband's ring from around her neck to make herself feel more comfortable and placed it on the table next to her before Danse worked on taking her bra off.

Danse lustfully took her lips again as he shoved her down on the bed again. He held her down while he moved his lips down her body and to her breasts. Kait moaned when his tongue slid around her nipple and her legs started to tremble when she felt one of his hands slowly slide down to be between them.

"Danse," she moaned.

"I'll make you listen," he stated with confidence and loved how she flinched as he shoved one of his fingers in her. He pleased her for a moment until she finally reached her hand down to grab him.

Danse leaned away from her and started to remove his clothes. When all he had remaining was his pants, he grabbed her and rolled her over on her stomach. Kait gripped her bedsheets tightly as she trembled in anticipation. She wanted him so bad and almost couldn't take it anymore when she heard him remove his pants.

Danse's strong body pressed against Kait's back and his hand slid under her to be against her stomach to make her lift her lower body in the air slightly.

"Are you ready?" he growled in her ear.

Kait moaned already, "Yes sir." She released a loud gasp as he pushed himself all the way in her. Kait panted as she tried to catch her breath and calm her heart rate. They've done it once before but she still wasn't used to his size. She closed her eyes as Danse's kisses were placed along the back of her shoulder while he began thrusting in her, releasing low breaths of pleasure himself.

He did her that way for a while and Kait had to grab onto the bars of her headboard while he continued. Her entire body was hot and her bangs were starting to stick to her forehead from the sweat.

"Is this what'll make you listen?" Danse asked her through a pant.

Kait nodded and did as he wanted finally, "Yes Danse…." She released another cry of pleasure. "I'll do anything…" Kait reached her hand back and slid her fingers in his hair as he placed his head right by hers. His lips and teeth where on her ear while he took one of his hands and slid it to be between her legs again. Kait arched against him when he started rubbing her to get her to her climax faster.

It worked. Kait let go of him and returned her hands to the bars as she lost control of her breathing. "D-Danse….!" she gasped loudly when he started thrusting in her harder as he grabbed her hips now with both hands. Danse moaned when he felt her walls tightening around him and it was intoxicating; nothing could compare to how she felt. When she was done, he slid himself out to roll her over on her back before reentering her.

Danse ran his fingers in her hair as he started to kiss her romantically, sliding his tongue around hers lovingly while he made love to her now. Kait slid her fingers in his hair just how he loved and she forced him to go deeper as she wrapped both of her legs around his waist. Danse had to break the kiss as he buried his face in her neck. Kait held him tightly when she could feel everything happen. She loved the sounds of his moans during his climax and absolutely cherished how he held her so strongly while he gave her everything.

Danse finally stopped moving as he laid on top of her weakly while lowly panting. Kait shivered when he slowly pulled himself out and laid down right next to her, placing his arm securely around her.

Kait rolled on her side to face Danse and she kissed him hard before he could react. Danse had his eyes closed as his lips matched her movement. When she pulled away, he had to ask, "What was that for?"

Kait rested her head down while keeping her hand placed on his face. She looked into his beautiful eyes and parted her lips to say her next words, "I think I'm in love with you."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The sun shining through the window was what woke Danse up. He was on his back with the covers pulled up to his torso with Kait still asleep next to him, her head resting on his chest.

Danse smiled to her and gently stroked her hair. She told him that she loved him and he couldn't ask for anything better. He never knew that he could love anything outside of the Brotherhood but here she was. The exception. She showed up in his life and gave him a feeling that he had never experienced before and he would never take it back.

They were both still undressed and when he tried to sit up so he could put his clothes back on, Kait's arms suddenly tightened around the Paladin.

"Mmm.. where're you going…?" Kait said groggily as her eyes were still closed.

Danse relaxed back on the bed and rubbed her bare shoulder now, "I need to return to the Prydwen."

He could feel Kait's weight shift as she exhaled deeply, "I know.."

Danse stayed where he was when Kait rose to sit up. The covers slid off her back and Danse enjoyed the view he got. Kait sleepily rubbed her eyes before she started getting up but not without getting her foot caught in the sheets first.

Danse chuckled as he watched her curse under her breath and grumble while wiggling her foot free. Danse sat up now and smiled with amusement when he witnessed her picking up his shirt and putting it on her. It was large on her and acted as a nightgown basically.

"I'm going to need that," Danse said as he retrieved his pants and pulled them on.

Kait smiled but dismissed him with her hand, "You'll get it in a moment, Paladin." She grabbed her pip boy and lit up the screen, groaning after she saw what she was looking for.

"What is it?" Danse asked while lacing up his boots.

Kait gave him a dull look, "It's 7:22. I'm tired."

Danse didn't understand, "You've gotten up earlier before on less sleep."

Kait smiled vaguely, "Yeah, well, I'm more exhausted than usual."

Ah, Danse got it. He smiled a little when he stood. He stepped behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I don't know why," he leaned down and gave the good side of her face a kiss. He now tugged on his shirt that she stole, "I need this."

Kait shrugged him off with a laugh, "Fine." She pulled his shirt back off over her head and tossed it to him. She was dressed in just a couple minutes and retrieved Nate's necklace before returning it to be around her neck again. She looked around the room as if searching for something. "I'll meet you outside."

Danse nodded to her with his shirt on now. He needed to gather his things that he left in the other building anyways. As soon as Danse was gone, Kait subconsciously placed a hand on her stomach. What if she was pregnant? She would know by now if she was after their first time but if they kept getting together then it was bound to happen unless being frozen for nearly 200 plus years somehow messed her body up. Kait highly doubted that though. She pushed her messy bangs back to be out of her face as she sighed dreadfully. She wasn't going to bother Danse with her worries.

Kait was outside and some of the others were still up; Preston because he was an overachiever, Nick because, well, he's a synth and he didn't sleep, and Curie because she always had something to do to advance her studies.

"Good morning doll," Nick said as soon as Kait entered the building that they all always gather at. Danse was in there grabbing a belt of supplies that he had brought and the detective was reading an old newspaper print of one of Piper's stories.

Kait took a seat next to him on the couch and leaned back, "Good morning Valentine."

Nick smiled at her when he watched her tiredly rub her eyes, "Why don't you go back to sleep?"

Kait smiled after a yawn and shook her head, "No, I'm fine. I'll be fine in like an hour."

Nick nodded and looked ahead of him now to Danse finishing with what he was doing. "Are you leaving Danse?"

Danse latched the belt around him and almost didn't hear the detective at first; he didn't expect a synth to actually address him. He looked up to meet golden eyes looking at him and he quickly regained his composure, "Yes. It's time I returned to the Prydwen." The Paladin went to take his leave but obviously hesitated in his step. He stopped himself from giving Kait a glance. They had to hide their relationship from the Brotherhood, at least for now until Kait was fully trusted again, but he was unaware if she wanted her friends to know or not.

Danse, giving Kait a professional look instead, spoke like a true Paladin with authority, "We expect you to return without being gone too long, Knight."

Kait knew why he spoke the way he did and wanted to say something else to him but chose to bow her head like a good soldier, "Of course."

Kait watched him leave and failed to hear Nick speaking to her; she didn't want to have Danse leave like that.

"Kait?" Nick asked.

Kait glanced at Nick now that she realized that he was trying to talk to her and she apologized immediately, "I'm sorry Nick. I'll be back real quick."

Kait left the building and once outside, she caught the sight of Deacon walking outside of the house he bunked at as well as Hancock and Cait from another. "Hey Danse!" Kait called. She slowed her step to a jog as she was close enough to him, "Wait."

Danse stopped walking from her voice and turned to face her. She stopped right in front of him with a wry smile placed across her lips.

"What is it?" Danse questioned. He knew what she wanted to do as soon as her hands slid across his face to be in his hair. He let her pull his head down to her and gladly accepted the way her lips belonged on his. Danse placed his hands on her waist during their kiss and he ignored every sound of those around him; the rest of the world didn't matter to him at that moment.

"I'll see you soon," Kait breathed softly as soon as the kiss was broken but with her hands still on him.

Danse smiled and gave her another sweet, small kiss, "Don't be gone too long. …. Please. For me."

Kait slid her hands down to be placed against his chest now, "Okay, I won't."

Danse backed away from her with his eyes still locked to hers. He bowed his head to her before turning to take his leave. Kait smiled broadly had her hand placed on her cheek with her pinky occasionally stroking her lips. She loved him. She didn't think she'd ever know love again but she did. At first, she wouldn't make herself be happy. She didn't want to be; didn't think she deserved to be but now, all she wanted to do was to have Danse around her. The way he made her heart race, how he made her face hot, and how much he made her want him beyond control was something she never wanted to let go of.

She looked over beside her when he felt the arm of someone get put around her and was greeted by Deacon.

"What exactly was that?" he asked and gave her a look behind his sunglasses.

Kait grinned and shrugged dumbly, "What was what?"

Deacon knew she was going to play the difficult one so he spoke suspiciously, "Where exactly did the two of you go last night?"

"I went to sleep," Kait said casually.

"With the soldier boy?" Deacon teased.

Kait shrugged again, "I don't know what you're getting at." She gave him a smile and they started walking back to the others while they talked.

"So what's the plan for today, Boss?" Deacon asked, his arm no longer around her.

Kait was serious now, "I was actually thinking of seeing Shaun again."

"Oh yeah, about that," They stopped walking as the Railroad agent began. "I managed to find a place for you. You know.. if Shaun was still a kid. I found a place to hide you two. I didn't mention it earlier because I don't know how much of a point there is for it now."

Kait had almost forgot that she requested that from him, "Really?" She stayed silent while she thought for a moment. It was true that she didn't need to run anymore but what if something happened where just she needed to hide? "Thank you Deacon," Kait said. "If you need to use it for someone else, then please do but if things don't work out between the Brotherhood or the Institute and I, then I might still need it."

Deacon gave her a reassuring smile, "Then it'll stay open for you. If that time ever comes, you know where to find me and I'll get you there."

"Thank you so much," Kait was immensely grateful for his help.

The next few hours in Sanctuary involved a lot of confrontation from the others, especially Cait, about Kait's and Danse's newly revealed relationship but the survivor just dismissed them all. Kait showered, ate breakfast and got all her things together before she was ready to return to the Institute. With some final departure words, she tapped her destination and was gone.

When she found Shaun, he was discussing something with another scientist when Kait entered the room. The scientist saw Kait first and redirected Shaun's attention towards her even though she stood there patiently.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Kait spoke uncomfortably as Shaun stopped speaking to look at her.

Shaun's eyes lit up. It seemed that he really did enjoy seeing his own mother, "Oh no, you're perfectly fine. We were just finishing up."

"I'll make the necessary adjustments right away," the scientist said to Shaun.

Shaun glanced in the other man's direction and nodded, "Very well. Let me know how it goes."

When the other man left the room, Shaun immediately approached Kait with a wide smile, "It's always nice to see you, mother. What brings you here? Have you thought about what I've said?"

Kait walked with Shaun as he motioned her to join him. "A little," Kait answered. They walked up to a balcony that overlooked the marvelously constructed Institute. "I really just came to see you."

Shaun smiled at her words, "Well, I always enjoy your company. But it's a good thing you're here. There's actually something I'd like to ask of you."

Kait was leaning on the railing of the balcony but stood up straight now as she looked up at her tall son. "What is it?"

Shaun looked out to overlook the Institute, "There's a certain matter that requires immediate attention and I'd like you to be the one to take care of it." She watched as her son's chest rose and fell with a deep breath, "Unfortunately, every so often, a synth manages to escape and an organization on the surface, known as the Railroad, likes to uninvitingly involve themselves in our situation by helping them hide from us. They wipe the synth's memories and give them a new life to live on the surface. Well, one in particular lately has been found and the new life they have chose to live is an unpleasant one. The synth, F6-13, has become the head of a small cult and has a group of Raiders backing him."

It took only a second for Shaun's words to hit her like a ton of bricks. Kait masked her emotions too well at the mention of the runaway synth. F6-13 was the synth that she and Deacon helped escape some time ago. She parted her lips to make herself speak, "You want me to bring him back?"

Shaun now looked at her, "Yes. I have a Courser ready to meet you on the surface if you so choose to help. He has the recon code for F6-13 and after you deactivate him, X6-88 will then take care of the rest."

Kait only assumed that the X6 he was talking about had to be the Courser but she questioned anyways, "Why do you need me if your Courser is already ready with the recon code?"

Shaun spoke as if he knew she'd ask that, "There's a lot of resistance and even a Courser could use some assistance. …. So what do you say?" Shaun watched the hesitation flash across his mother's face so he quickly added in, "If it makes you feel any better, this won't make you a full part of the Institute if you're still unsure. This is merely a task for you to possibly see our ways. Maybe after you're done, you'll then come to see what we truly stand for and what we're trying to accomplish."

His words did reassure Kait. She really was still unsure if she agreed with the Institute's beliefs, that being mainly because her dear friends, and just everyone in the Commonwealth, are against them and everywhere one can turn has something to say about how awful the Institute is. So everything up to that point that she's had to learn all told her to destroy what her own son had come to lead.

"Okay," Kait finally spoke. "I'll do it."

A wide, proud smile formed on his lips, "Great." He motioned for her to show her pip boy, "I'll show you where it is."

When Kait arrived at her destination, she met X6-88, the Courser that would be accompanying her. He was tall, mysterious, and overall emotionless. Kait was uncomfortable just being in the vicinity of him and loathed when he would glance in her direction, even if he did cover his eyes with sunglasses. He was cold and ruthless and she longed to be far from him as soon as she could.

X6 took the lead as he charged towards the old school building where F6 was holed up in with the others. There were raiders outside and Kait provided cover fire while the Courser ran down to be in the middle of the action. Watching him drop raiders left and right sent a hard chill down Kait's spine. He was very good at his job; too good at killing and that was disturbing. What would happen if he was sent after her if things didn't go so well between her and the Institute? She doubted that she could stand a chance alone with him and didn't want to see any of her friends die for her if she needed help.

When it was clear, X6 motioned for her to join him, which she did and the two entered through the front entrance to the school. The inside was dimly lit. A lot of the light was from the sun outside shining brightly through holes in the roof. Kait found herself covering her nose due to the thick stench of blood and possibly deceased bodies rotting and corrupting the air. She glanced at the Courser that was about a foot in front of her and noticed how he seemed unaffected by what was phasing her. He crouched and began to move onward stealthily and Kait found herself following him.


End file.
